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American Morning
'House Call'
Aired February 18, 2004 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Combination drugs are designed to deliver a one-two punch against illness. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta now joins with us from the CNN Center more on this story.
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Yes, you remember, you and I were talking about the polypill not that long ago. It's this pill that has all sorts of different ingredients in it, has a statin, which we were just talking about, for cholesterol lowering, has Aspirin in it, has a blood pressure medication, folic acid, all sorts of different medications in one, a lot of traction, a lot of popularity at that time, but doctors were concerned. How would you dose it? Who would benefit from it? How costly would it be? Is polypill going to be a thing of the past.
Well, interestingly, we don't have a polypill out there, but there are several drugs that are coming out now that are sort of two for one punches. One of the most recent ones, just got FDA approval, Cadiwet (ph). Cadiwet is a new medication containing Lipitor for high cholesterol and Norvac (ph). Now if you have a heart condition, a lot of patients who have heart conditions need both of those medications, so you get two for one in there.
There are some that are already out there was. One called Lotrel (ph), which, again, combines Norvasc and Lotensen (ph), two blood pressure medications, two blood pressure medications instead of one, possibly increased effectiveness.
Also another medication, Advicor (ph), which is Mevacor (ph) and B vitamin Niacin, both cholesterol-lowering medications. Again, for people who have high cholesterol, you get a two-for-one drug. And it's not just for patients with heart disease. There's another medication out there as well, Simbiax (ph), which is for manic depression, which combined Exprexa (ph) and Prozac to try and control bipolar depression. So these two for one pills are starting to gain some traction. You're going to see more and more of them out there. The polypill, maybe not. The two-for-ones may be here to stay -- Bill.
HEMMER: Just like so many of these conversations we have regarding medicine, there are risks and there are benefits involved here. Take us through those.
GUPTA: Always. As scientists, we always look for both, the risks and the benefits. Let's do the benefits first here. There are some significant benefits, potency, efficacy -- that means effectiveness -- could be increased with a two-for-one sort of pill.
Also just simple things, like logistics, if you only have to take one pill instead of two, patients are probably going to be more compliant, because they have fewer pills to take. Also an important point as well, they could be cheaper, because lot of patients have co- pays. So if you're just doing a co-pay on one drug instead of two, there are some benefits.
Also downsides, you can't adjust the dose. That's what doctors are concerned about. If you have an allergy to one of the pills and all of a sudden you can't take both, and then sometimes difficult to pinpoint side effects.
There's also sort of a business angle. Andy Serwer probably would mention that do these two-for-one pills, you are probably going to increase the shelf life, increase the lifespan of a lot of these drugs whose patents are running out, and that could be some of the side interest as well in some of these medications -- Bill.
HEMMER: Got it. Sanjay, thanks. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 18, 2004 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Combination drugs are designed to deliver a one-two punch against illness. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta now joins with us from the CNN Center more on this story.
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Yes, you remember, you and I were talking about the polypill not that long ago. It's this pill that has all sorts of different ingredients in it, has a statin, which we were just talking about, for cholesterol lowering, has Aspirin in it, has a blood pressure medication, folic acid, all sorts of different medications in one, a lot of traction, a lot of popularity at that time, but doctors were concerned. How would you dose it? Who would benefit from it? How costly would it be? Is polypill going to be a thing of the past.
Well, interestingly, we don't have a polypill out there, but there are several drugs that are coming out now that are sort of two for one punches. One of the most recent ones, just got FDA approval, Cadiwet (ph). Cadiwet is a new medication containing Lipitor for high cholesterol and Norvac (ph). Now if you have a heart condition, a lot of patients who have heart conditions need both of those medications, so you get two for one in there.
There are some that are already out there was. One called Lotrel (ph), which, again, combines Norvasc and Lotensen (ph), two blood pressure medications, two blood pressure medications instead of one, possibly increased effectiveness.
Also another medication, Advicor (ph), which is Mevacor (ph) and B vitamin Niacin, both cholesterol-lowering medications. Again, for people who have high cholesterol, you get a two-for-one drug. And it's not just for patients with heart disease. There's another medication out there as well, Simbiax (ph), which is for manic depression, which combined Exprexa (ph) and Prozac to try and control bipolar depression. So these two for one pills are starting to gain some traction. You're going to see more and more of them out there. The polypill, maybe not. The two-for-ones may be here to stay -- Bill.
HEMMER: Just like so many of these conversations we have regarding medicine, there are risks and there are benefits involved here. Take us through those.
GUPTA: Always. As scientists, we always look for both, the risks and the benefits. Let's do the benefits first here. There are some significant benefits, potency, efficacy -- that means effectiveness -- could be increased with a two-for-one sort of pill.
Also just simple things, like logistics, if you only have to take one pill instead of two, patients are probably going to be more compliant, because they have fewer pills to take. Also an important point as well, they could be cheaper, because lot of patients have co- pays. So if you're just doing a co-pay on one drug instead of two, there are some benefits.
Also downsides, you can't adjust the dose. That's what doctors are concerned about. If you have an allergy to one of the pills and all of a sudden you can't take both, and then sometimes difficult to pinpoint side effects.
There's also sort of a business angle. Andy Serwer probably would mention that do these two-for-one pills, you are probably going to increase the shelf life, increase the lifespan of a lot of these drugs whose patents are running out, and that could be some of the side interest as well in some of these medications -- Bill.
HEMMER: Got it. Sanjay, thanks. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
