Single pills pack a multiple punch

"I just hate taking pills," Martin says, "and what's more, with each extra drug, that's another co-pay I've got to shell out."

Then, the Woodland, Ohio, resident heard a TV ad for Caduet, which combines the blood-pressure-lowering drug Norvasc with the cholesterol-reducing medicine Lipitor, Martin's doctor agreed that Caduet could take care of his patient's blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering needs and prescribed the drug, leaving the reverend's drug count at a total of two per day.

"Now, I'm getting the drugs I need without extra pills or extra cost," Martin says.

Although pharmacy cough and cold sections have long been filled with remedies that combine four and even five ingredients to stop sniffles, fever, congestion and headache in a single dose, prescription drugs are increasingly offered as combination therapies as well.

Pills that include two cholesterol-lowering drugs are the fastest-growing segment of the cholesterol-lowering market, health business analysts say. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a medication, Atripla, that combines three drugs to treat HIV. Although physicians treating medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure often start patients on just a single drug until they can see how well it works and what the side effects are, that could begin to change. Two weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration held a hearing to consider approving Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Synthelabo's drug Avalide, a combination of two already-available blood-pressure lowering drugs, for first-line therapy. (First-line therapy is the initial treatment recommended for a disease or condition.)

"Combination drugs are likely to benefit a great many people who are already taking the same drugs separately," says Richard Fisler, president of Beachhead Consulting, who has published a market research report on combination therapies.

That doesn't mean the drugs are the best choice for everyone. If a patient is already taking Norvasc and Lipitor -- and having two insurance copays -- taking the drugs as a single Caduet pill will reduce the number of pills he or she has to take, and, for many people, will bring the two copays down to one, Fisler says.