Topic of Choice - The future of pharmacy and polypills
This blog was inspired by “The future of drugs” in Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine  by Thomas Hager. What is a polypill? UK physicians Nicholas Wald and Malcolm Law introduced the term in 2000. They proposed combining multiple medications that prevent cardiovascular disease into one single “polypill.” Within the next year, they obtained a patent for their idea in the EU and Canada. By 2003, The British Medical Journal reported that their idea was one of the most important scientific publications of the last 50 years. If this concept sounds familiar, it’s because combination medications such as lisinopril-HCTZ and alogliptin-metformin are available in the US. But why aren’t these considered a form of polypill? It seems that key differences are that these medications are used for disease treatment, not prevention, and are only available as tablets. The Polypill website specifically refers to a capsule formulation that is not a licensed medica...
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