'Combination' high blood pressure pills 'cut heart risk more' They cut the relative chance of having a "serious cardiovascular complication" over a five-year period by almost 40 per cent, compared to taking individual pills, found the British study. In absolute terms, they cut the five-year risk from 13.6 to 8.3 per cent. Combination pills contain two or three different drugs to help bring down high blood pressure, which affects some 8.5 million people in Britain, and is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Many people prescribed medication for high blood pressure are elderly and on other medications, meaning they have lots of separate tablets to take every day. The study, funded in part by drugs firm Daiichi Sankyo, which makes combination pill Sevikar, also analysed the overall costs of managing patients, including the cost of the pills and any other treatment such as hospitalisation. It found the average cost per patient was £191.49 for the combination pill and £189.35 for single tablets, known as 'monotherapy'. Dr Jonathan Belsey, a health economist and lead author of the study, published in the Journal of Medical Economics, said: "This analysis shows that treatment with a combination pill resulted in a clinical benefit to patients through the reduction in cardiovascular events, and a benefit to the NHS by reducing healthcare costs associated with complications of poor blood pressure control, particularly heart attacks and stroke." Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of The Stroke Association, said: "Many people with high blood pressure are required to take multiple pills every day to reduce their blood pressure and therefore reduce their risk of stroke, but calculating when each pill needs to be taken can often be confusing. Combining the pills into one could make taking the medication much simpler. However, it's important to note that these combination pills might not be suitable for everyone and they may have side effects so every patient should be assessed and treated on an individual basis.