Side effects
For a complete list, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Call your doctor right away if you have the following symptoms of liver problems: feel tired or weak loss of appetite upper belly pain dark amber colored urine yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes Call your doctor right away if you have: muscle problems like weakness, tenderness, or pain that happen without a good reason, especially if you also have a fever or feel more tired than usual. allergic reactions including swelling of the face, lips, tongue, and/or throat that may cause difficulty in breathing or swallowing which may require treatment right away. nausea and vomiting. passing brown or dark-colored urine. you feel more tired than usual your skin and whites of your eyes get yellow. stomach pain. allergic skin reactions. Patients taking Lipitor reported experiencing the following typical side effects: the common cold (also known as nasopharyngitis), joint pain, diarrhea, pain in the extremities, and urinary tract infections. Lipitor can result in severe muscle issues that can cause kidney issues, including kidney failure. Serious negative side effects are possible with Lipitor. issues with the liver. The following additional side effects have been reported with Lipitor: general feeling of discomfort (malaise) fever neck pain joint swelling hives Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have side effects that bother you or that will not go away. These are not all the side effects of Lipitor. These serious side effects include: Muscle problems. Only a few people have experienced these side effects. These side effects usually go away if your dose is lowered or Lipitor is stopped. If you combine Lipitor with certain other medications, your risk of developing muscle issues increases. Your physician can keep an eye out for them. Before you start taking Lipitor, your doctor should perform blood tests to check your liver, and if you experience any liver-related side effects, they should be reported immediately.
Interactions
It's crucial to let your doctor know if you take any other medications because some of them can make you more susceptible to developing severe muscle issues. Lipitor drug interactions (more detail) In addition to prescription and over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and herbal products, atorvastatin may also interact with a wide range of other medications. This medication guide does not contain a complete list of all possible interactions. Inform your doctor of all prescription and over-the-counter medications, including: This is not a comprehensive list. Other drugs that lower cholesterol; antibiotics or antifungals; birth control pills; drugs that prevent organ transplant rejection; drugs for the heart; or drugs to treat hepatitis C or HIV.
Contraindications
Don't try to conceive. If any of the following apply to you: you are expecting, suspect you may be expecting, or plan to become pregnant, avoid taking Lipitor. If you become pregnant or start nursing, stop taking Lipitor immediately and contact your doctor. If you get pregnant, stop taking Lipitor right away and call your doctor. The advantages and risks of using this medication should be discussed with your doctor. A serious interaction between Lipitor and other medications can result in negative side effects. If you have liver issues, are allergic to Lipitor or any of its components, or are taking it while nursing, Lipitor may harm your baby. Children under the age of 10 have not been studied when given Lipitor. Lipitor may harm your unborn baby. Lipitor is one of several statin drugs that pose a small but significant risk of developing the following conditions: liver damage, memory loss, confusion, type 2 diabetes, immune-mediated muscle breakdown, and muscle weakness. Before beginning any new medications, consult your doctor. This covers both prescription and over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
Use of atorvastatin is not recommended in patients taking letermovir co-administered with ciclosporin (see sections 4.4 and 4.5). Lipitor is contraindicated in patients with active liver disease (see section 4.3). Primary hypercholesterolaemia and combined (mixed) hyperlipidaemia The majority of patients are controlled with Lipitor 10 mg once a day.
Broadcast Coverage • NPR's "Morning Edition" on Monday reported on Pfizer's announcement (Amos, "Morning Edition," NPR, 12/4). Analyst said FDA likely would now require longer outcome trials of three to five years for such drugs. The company has spent at least $800 million on developing the drug (, 12/4). In October, Pfizer said it had found that a combination of torcetrapib and Lipitor significantly increased HDL, or "good," cholesterol and lowered LDL, or "bad," cholesterol compared with patients taking only Lipitor ( FDA Comments • FDA on Sunday in a statement said that it supports Pfizer's decision to halt development and that it will work with Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies developing drugs targeting HDL cholesterol to ensure that procedures are in place to quickly identify potential safety concerns (Agovino, , 12/3). It just looks like torcetrapib isn't the one.
Do not start a new medication without telling your doctor. Avoid eating foods that are high in fat or cholesterol. Call your doctor right away if you have unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness especially if you also have fever, unusual tiredness, and dark colored urine. Lipitor is only part of a complete program of treatment that also includes diet, exercise, and weight control.
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will rule after its May 29 hearing in Chicago on whether plaintiffs’ opposition to transferring these Lipitor lawsuits is just. That regulatory move came about 16 years since Pfizer began marketing the blockbuster moneymaker. Nearly 100 diabetic plaintiffs in Lipitor lawsuits, more than 80 of which from the federal Central District of California, will find out in June whether their cases will be adjudicated in the courts in which those lawsuits were filed. In one study of new users of so-called “statin” drugs conducted in Canada from 1997 to 2010, “treatment with higher potency statins, especially atorvastatin and simvastatin, might be associated with an increased risk of new onset diabetes.” Generic Lipitor had the highest hazard ratio.
In three placebo-controlled, 12-week trials, the incidence of consecutive elevations (=3 X ULN) in serum transaminases were 1.7 percent overall for patients treated with VYTORIN and 2.6 percent for patients treated with VYTORIN 10/80 mg. VYTORIN should not be taken by anyone with active liver disease or unexplained persistent elevations of serum transaminases. However, there was a significantly greater incidence of consecutive elevations in liver enzymes (ALT and/or AST) greater than or equal to three times the upper limit of normal in the pooled Lipitor group (1.2 percent, 11 out of 939 patients) compared with the pooled group of patients who took VYTORIN (0.1 percent, 1 out of 933 patients) (p<0.001).
• The addition expands the retailer's free medication program, and makes Meijer the first retailer in the Midwest to offer this generic cholesterol lowering medication – up to 30 tablets per fill in 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg strengths – free to customers with a physician's prescription. Meijer operates supercenter stores in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. The retailer says its free pharmacy medication program has saved its customers a collective $181 million since the program was launched in 2006.
FDA announces safety changes in labeling for some cholesterol-lowering drugs, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Statins: A Success Story Involving FDA, Academia and Industry, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Predictors of New-Onset Diabetes in Patients Treated With Atorvastatin, Journal of the American College of Cardiology Statin use associated with increased diabetes risk in women, University of Massachusetts Medical School Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a collaborative meta-analysis of randomised statin trials, The Lancet Safety Alerts Cite Cholesterol Drugs’ Side Effects, The New York Times Lipitor atorvastatin calcium tablets, Pfizer Inc. Research shows that the diabetes risk is particularly high among older women. While diabetes is a controllable disease, the Mayo Clinic says that one-half to three-quarters of people with Type 2 diabetes will die from a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke or related complications.