India, Aug. 28 -- For as long as high cholesterol has been treatable, it has been treated the same way - a daily statin pill, taken for life, with the person on the medicine doing the remembering. That arrangement is beginning to change.

Cardiovascular disease kills roughly 3.2 million Indians a year - about one in four deaths in the country, and nearly half of all deaths between 40 and 69. High LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol is one of the biggest modifiable causes. For most people who have it, it is either untreated or treated with the same medicine that has been prescribed for 30 years: statins.

Today, these are the foundation of cardiac health, which hinges on the level of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol, in excess, ...