AN all-in-one "polypill" with the potential to save many tens of thousands of lives each year in the UK could be available in less than two years.

Results from a ground-breaking trial showed that the four-medicine pill dramatically reduces major risk factors for heart attack and stroke.

In a group of healthy individuals aged 50 and over, it cut levels of blood pressure and cholesterol to those typical of a 20-year-old.

If everyone in the UK from a similar age group took the pill, the findings suggest an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 deaths would be prevented. The number of averted non-fatal cases could be double this figure.

Experts called for the polypill to be made available to the UK population "without delay".

Realistically it could take another one to two years for all the regulatory hurdles to be overcome, according to study leader Dr David Wald, from Queen Mary, University of London.

The polypill is a layered tablet containing three blood pressure-lowering drugs and a cholesterol-lowering statin.

The cost of the prescription-only pill is expected to be no more than a few hundred pounds a year.

Dr Wald's father, Professor Sir Nicholas Wald, the pill's inventor, said: "We now need public, professional and regulatory support to make the polypill available without delay. The net benefits are too large to ignore."

The polypill used in the study contained the blood pressure drugs amlodipine, losartan and hydrochlorothiazide together with cholesterol-lowering simvastatin.