In UtenSilos Blog

Polypill for lower blood pressure and cholesterol faces technical hurdles

April 11th, 2009

The so-called polypill for lower blood pressure and cholesterol has been getting rave reviews from doctors eager to prescribe more pills to ever more people. But the polypill will probably never make it to widespread use becauce of technical problems.

The problem is that the compounds in the polypill are unstabile when combined and will have a very short shelf life. For example, rampiril, one of the ingredients is unstabile if not stored at the right pH. But the required pH level for rampiril will destroy aspirin, one of the polypill’s other medications. What’s more the acidic compounds that aspirin breaks down into will destroy the therapeutic benefits of the other drugs.

This problem is a blessing in disguise as millions of healthy people may now escape yet another unnecessary drug prescription.

Entry Filed under: Health