By Daniel Martin By
Daily Mail
05 May 2008
SCIENTISTS have produced a ‘polypill’ which they say could save 100,000 lives a year among the over-55s. They believe that the tablets – which contain a cholesterol-busting statin, three medicines to lower blood pressure, and folic acid – could prevent four-fifths of heart attacks and strokes.
The pill, which has won the backing of the Government’s heart disease czar, could be available on the NHS within five years.
Its developers, the London-based Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, say they hope to get the price down to £1 a day.
Scientists there have been working on the pill for more than five years, but the first samples became available only last week.
Professor Nicholas Wald, the institute’s director, said: ‘We want to get it out there so people can use it.
‘Our mission is to make it available to everyone affordable price.
‘The founders of our group would like this pill to be available to everyOne for about £1 a day.’
While mass prescription of the polypill would cost the NHS around £6billion a year, heart disease and strokes claim more than 200,000 lives a year and cost £14billion to treat. [14 + 6 = 20]
Professor Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation said last year: ‘There is no such thing as a totally safe drug.
‘The problem is that if you take a polypill and end up with a side effect, you don’t know which constituent is behind it.’
D.Martin@DailyMail.co.ukThe Government’s heart disease ... read more...
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