This Blood Pressure Pill Puts 3 Medications in One

(HealthDay News) — An experimental three-in-one blood pressure pill works better than layering on meds one at a time, a new clinical trial shows. After a month on the combo pill, 81 percent of patients had their blood pressure under control compared with 55% of patients receiving standard care, researchers report. “The triple pill still produced clinically meaningful reductions in blood pressure compared to standard care, even when standard care closely followed current guidelines and involved more clinic visits,” said lead investigator Dr. Dike Ojji, head of the Cardiovascular Research Unit at the University of Abuja in Nigeria. “In low-income countries, fewer than one in four treated people achieve blood pressure control, and in high-income settings it is only between 50 percent and 70 percent, so to see rates of over 80 percent in just one month is impressive,” Ojji added. The GMRx2 pill, which was developed by the pharmaceutical company George Medicines, contains the blood pressure meds telmisartan, amlodipine and indapamide. It’s taken once daily. The company is part of the George Institute for Global Health. Researchers compared people taking the combo pill to those receiving standard treatment for high blood pressure, which involves starting off with one drug...