The power of one versus many

Sally Elshafie
27/02/2023

Take home messages

  • The polypill strategy may help reduce cardiovascular events by improving adherence to medications.
  • In selected populations, polypills can improve cardiovascular outcomes in primary prevention settings.
  • The SECURE trial, the first randomised control trial assessing cardiovascular outcomes with polypill use as secondary prevention, showed that polypills reduce major acute cardiovascular events and improve medications adherence in secondary prevention setting. However, all-cause mortality and adverse events in the polypill and control arms of the trial were similar.
  • Further randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm the findings in this study.
  • The components of the polypill used and the targeted population are key factors to the success of Polypills in improving cardiovascular outcomes.
Introduction

It has been proposed that fixed-dose combination (FDC) polypills could reduce major acute cardiovascular events (MACE) and improve medications adherence in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This editorial will address this and look at the existing evidence in the literature with a focused review on the SECURE trial.