Sunday, July 13, 2025
ISSN 2765-8767
  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • Write for Us
  • My Account
  • Log In
Daily Remedy
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
    Your Body, Your Health Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

    Your Body, Your Health Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

    July 1, 2025
    Unlocking the Secrets of GLP-1 Medications

    The cost structure of hospitals nearly doubles

    July 1, 2025
    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    The Fight Against Healthcare Fraud: Dr. Rafai’s Story

    April 8, 2025
    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    April 4, 2025
    The Alarming Truth About Health Insurance Denials

    The Alarming Truth About Health Insurance Denials

    February 3, 2025
    Telehealth in Turmoil

    The Importance of NIH Grants

    January 31, 2025
  • Surveys

    Surveys

    What concerns you most about your healthcare?

    What concerns you most about your healthcare?

    July 1, 2025
    Perception vs. Comprehension: Public Understanding of the 2025 MAHA Report

    Perception vs. Comprehension: Public Understanding of the 2025 MAHA Report

    June 4, 2025

    Survey Results

    Do you believe national polls on health issues are accurate

    National health polls: trust in healthcare system accuracy?

    May 8, 2024
    Which health policy issues matter the most to Republican voters in the primaries?

    Which health policy issues matter the most to Republican voters in the primaries?

    May 14, 2024
    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    May 7, 2024
  • Courses
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us
  • Official Learner
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
    Your Body, Your Health Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

    Your Body, Your Health Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer

    July 1, 2025
    Unlocking the Secrets of GLP-1 Medications

    The cost structure of hospitals nearly doubles

    July 1, 2025
    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    The Fight Against Healthcare Fraud: Dr. Rafai’s Story

    April 8, 2025
    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    Navigating the Medical Licensing Maze

    April 4, 2025
    The Alarming Truth About Health Insurance Denials

    The Alarming Truth About Health Insurance Denials

    February 3, 2025
    Telehealth in Turmoil

    The Importance of NIH Grants

    January 31, 2025
  • Surveys

    Surveys

    What concerns you most about your healthcare?

    What concerns you most about your healthcare?

    July 1, 2025
    Perception vs. Comprehension: Public Understanding of the 2025 MAHA Report

    Perception vs. Comprehension: Public Understanding of the 2025 MAHA Report

    June 4, 2025

    Survey Results

    Do you believe national polls on health issues are accurate

    National health polls: trust in healthcare system accuracy?

    May 8, 2024
    Which health policy issues matter the most to Republican voters in the primaries?

    Which health policy issues matter the most to Republican voters in the primaries?

    May 14, 2024
    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    May 7, 2024
  • Courses
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us
  • Official Learner
No Result
View All Result
Daily Remedy
No Result
View All Result
Home Trends

Rise of the Polypill

Is it the beginning of a new trend?

Daily Remedy by Daily Remedy
September 19, 2022
in Trends
0
Rise of the Polypill

One pill to rule them all.

The polypill, a combination of multiple medications packaged together as one pill, has recently sparked the interest of health policy makers. It has been around for some time, mostly for infectious diseases, but it now enjoys renewed interest in the preventive health space.

If recent studies are a sign, we may soon see combination medications packaged into one pill for chronic conditions and age-related diseases. It sounds idealistic enough, but the practical means to implement this are anything but.

In the coming years, if current trends hold and we see a push toward polypills, then we will witness how the pharmaceutical industry institutionalizes innovation and converts it into profit.

When we think of innovation, we think of novel inventions, tools, or widgets that improve on things from before. But innovation is also a process. And in healthcare, rife with complex processes, simply improving the way we do things is a form of innovation.

The technology to combine medications has been around for decades. In fact, it has its own cottage industry called compounding. Throughout the world, including the United States, compound pharmacies provide medications for pain relief and other herbal ointments by combining custom doses of various medications into one pill or cream.

But these formularies are generic and therefore not capable of sustaining the profit margins pharmaceutical conglomerates desire. For the pharmaceutical industry to get involved, and institutionalize polypills as standards of care – as only it can – polypills have to be in fixed dose combination. This means the combination of ingredients have to be set; unlike the many compound pharmacies that customize medications based on patient preference.

This may appear better for patients, but not for pharmaceutical companies’ profits – which means we will see fixed dose combination medications seeking patents for market protections as the calls for polypills grow louder. This opens Pandora’s box of regulatory approval, which then paves the way for FDA approval and Medicare oversight – effectively triggering the administrative machinations of the healthcare industrial complex.

As a result, the convenience of having a single pill transforms into the profit enjoyed from selling a fixed drug combination. Once the profit margins become publicly available, we will see waves of combination pharmaceuticals attain patent protection, undergo clinical trials, and seek market approval.

Instead of generic metformin, a medication used as first line treatment for diabetes, we will see metformin mixed with hypertension or hypercholesterolemia medications, clinical conditions commonly associated with diabetes, in a patented drug combination fully equipped with its own catchy name and go-to-market strategy.

Drug costs will increase and market shares for combinations of different clinical conditions will be carved out: All ostensibly in the name of patient convenience – the ease of a single polypill – but really, all in the name of pharmaceutical profits.

It makes for an interesting moral hazard and reveals how innovations are institutionalized into profits in the pharmaceutical industry.

What starts as a play for patient convenience contorts under the aegis of healthcare consumerism to become a tool to glean profits. Simply by leveraging the regulatory mechanisms of the federal government, pharmaceutical companies create a competitive advantage.

It improves patient compliance, they will argue. Already we are seeing studies that support that. We see scores of small-scale studies advocating improved compliance with polypills, as though it is not obvious enough that taking one pill is easier than taking multiple at a time. They read more like preliminary marketing materials than well designed clinical studies. But perhaps these researchers know something we do not.

Maybe they understand the price of convenience.

ShareTweet
Daily Remedy

Daily Remedy

Dr. Jay K Joshi serves as the editor-in-chief of Daily Remedy. He is a serial entrepreneur and sought after thought-leader for matters related to healthcare innovation and medical jurisprudence. He has published articles on a variety of healthcare topics in both peer-reviewed journals and trade publications. His legal writings include amicus curiae briefs prepared for prominent federal healthcare cases.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Videos

In this episode of the Daily Remedy Podcast, Dr. Jeffrey Singer discusses his book 'Your Body, Your Health Care,' emphasizing the importance of patient autonomy in healthcare decisions. He explores historical cases that shaped medical ethics, the contradictions in harm reduction policies, and the role of the FDA in drug approval processes. Dr. Singer critiques government regulations that infringe on individual autonomy and advocates for a healthcare system that respects patients as autonomous adults. The conversation highlights the need for a shift in how healthcare policies are formulated, focusing on individual rights and self-medication.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Jeffrey Singer and His Book
01:11 The Importance of Patient Autonomy
10:29 Contradictions in Harm Reduction Policies
20:48 The Role of the FDA in Drug Approval
30:21 Certificate of Need Laws and Their Impact
39:59 The Legacy of Patient Autonomy and the Hippocratic Oath
Your Body, Your Health Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer
YouTube Video _IWv1EYeJYQ
Subscribe

RFK Jr.’s Overhaul of CDC Vaccine Policy

Visuals

Official MAHA Report

Official MAHA Report

by Daily Remedy
May 31, 2025
0

Explore the official MAHA Report released by the White House in May 2025.

Read more

Twitter Updates

Tweets by DailyRemedy1

Newsletter

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do

Popular

  • Off-Label Uprising: GLP-1 Therapies, Consumer Demand, and the New Meaning of Prescription

    Off-Label Uprising: GLP-1 Therapies, Consumer Demand, and the New Meaning of Prescription

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Beyond the Clinic Walls: AI, Virtual Reality, and the Nation’s Mental Health Workforce Expansion

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Grey Market of Weight Loss: How Compounded GLP-1 Medications Continue Despite FDA Crackdowns

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Virtual Frontiers and Neural Links: Telehealth’s Expansion and the Muskian Dilemma

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The First FBI Agent I Met

    3 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 628 Followers

Daily Remedy

Daily Remedy offers the best in healthcare information and healthcare editorial content. We take pride in consistently delivering only the highest quality of insight and analysis to ensure our audience is well-informed about current healthcare topics - beyond the traditional headlines.

Daily Remedy website services, content, and products are for informational purposes only. We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All rights reserved.

Important Links

  • Support Us
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Newsletter

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do

  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • About Us
  • Contact us

© 2025 Daily Remedy

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
  • Surveys
  • Courses
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us
  • Official Learner

© 2025 Daily Remedy

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do