Cerivastatin

General information

Weight for weight, cerivastatin is the most potent statin. Like other statins, the chance of rhabdomyolysis increases when cerivastatin is taken together with certain other drugs [ ]. Although cerivastatin is degraded by two different isoforms of P450 in the liver, and therefore should be less likely to take part in drug interactions than most of the other statins, clinically important interactions do occur, and reports of drug interactions in 2001 triggered its withdrawal, after 31 people in the USA taking cerivastatin, 12 of whom had also taken gemfibrozil, died of severe rhabdomyolysis [ ].

In other respects, the adverse effects of cerivastatin are similar to those of other statins [ ], and a pooled analysis of studies of cerivastatin 100–400 micrograms/day taken for at least 8 weeks showed no differences in drug-related adverse events between cerivastatin and placebo [ ]. There was no association between plasma aminotransferase or creatine kinase activities and cerivastatin dosages. Cerivastatin 800 micrograms/day for 4 weeks had only mild transient adverse effects [ ].

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