A single-pill combination of amlodipine besylate and atorvastatin calcium

This review describes the clinical profile and rationale for the development of a single-pill formulation of the calcium channel blocker amlodipine besylate, a blood pressure-lowering agent with pleiotropic effects, and atorvastatin calcium, a statin with lipid-lowering as well as pleiotropic anti-atherosclerotic properties. Amlodipine and atorvastatin have been demonstrated in numerous clinical trials to be highly effective in lowering blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Furthermore, both amlodipine and atorvastatin have been demonstrated to reduce cardiovascular events in a broad range of patients. The amlodipine/atorvastatin single pill has been shown to improve patients' achievement of national guideline-recommended blood pressure and lipid target levels and exhibits a safety profile consistent with its parent compounds. The combination pill is available in formulations appropriate for administration across therapeutic dose ranges targeted to a wide variety of hypertensive patients with additional risk factors and differing degrees of cardiovascular risk, or with manifest cardiovascular disease. Single-pill amlodipine/atorvastatin has the potential to improve the management of hypertensive patients with additional cardiovascular risk factors, especially dyslipidemia, by reducing pill burden and prescription costs. This potential has important implications because hypertensive patients with additional risk factors represent a large proportion of those at risk for cardiovascular events.