Impact of fixed-dose drug combinations regarding the compliance as compared with free-drug regimens

Abstract

Medication compliance is the act of taking medication on schedule or taking medication as prescribed. It has been observed that over half of all medications prescribed by doctors are never taken, or are discarded during the course of treatment. Complexity of treatment makes the patient to take several medications or doses every day which may lead the things more difficult. People who are very sick sometimes tend to neglect their drug therapy, taking it sporadically or lowering their dose in ways that can be harmful to their health. FDCs have become an important alternative to monotherapy in the treatment of different diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis, asthma and COPD by offering several advantages including patients compliance, simple dosage schedule, superior efficacy and tolerability, reduced risk of adverse events, cheaper shipment and packaging activities. FDC increases the patients compliance but there are chances of consuming medicines, more than what is required. The development of fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) is becoming increasingly important from a public health perspective. Thus, the present study review the advantages and disadvantages of FDC and single therapy and give suitable recommendation towards the drug regimen.