Public Citizen today called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor from the market. Crestor, which is marketed by AstraZeneca, has been linked to cases of life-threatening muscle damage and kidney failure or damage, says the consumer advocacy group.
“The FDA should never have approved this drug in the face of such serious and potentially lethal adverse effects,” Public Citizen Health Research Group Director Sidney Wolfe, M.D. said. “The only way the agency can show it has concern for patient safety, and not drug industry wishes, is to pull Crestor from market immediately.”
The FDA approved Crestor just five months ago.
Public Citizen claims three patients in the U.S. who were taking approved doses of Crestor developed kidney failure or muscle damage.
“We have obtained new information from the FDA and health agencies in Canada and the U.K. concerning serious post-marketing adverse reactions – including seven cases of life-threatening rhabdomyolysis (muscle destruction) and nine cases of kidney failure or kidney damage – in patients mostly using lower doses of this recently-approved cholesterol-lowering drug, Crestor,” Dr. Wolfe said in a petition to FDA today.
In July 2003, Dr. Wolfe strongly urged the FDA not to approve Crestor, because in addition to the risks of muscle and kidney damage, Crestor has not been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, in addition to lowering cholesterol levels.
In the petition to the FDA, Public Citizen highlighted how two major U.S. insurers, WellPoint/Blue Cross and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, have refused to reimburse for Crestor.
AstraZeneca is getting ready to launch a major direct-to-consumer advertising campaign to promote Crestor, Public Citizen said in a press release issued today.
(via Public Citizen)
{ 75 comments }
I am on crestor 10mg myself. I was on liptor 20mg and my ldl is 110, now with crestor my ldl is 99. I feel fine on both drug. Why did you believe crestor is not safety? My doctor tells me that crestor is safe like liptor. What kind of concern that i have with Crestor vs liptor?
I’ve been on Crestor for about 8 weeks now. My cholesteral has been lowered almost 100 points. I will admit however, that I am frightened after reading more about Crestor.
I am experiencing achey tired legs…no cramps like when I was on Lipitor. Please advise what concerns I should be aware of. What is being suggested to people who are presentley taking crestor?
I have been taking 10mgs of Crestor for a little over a month. I have had body aches and felt feverish. I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and understand that I should not have been prescribed Crestor with this condition and taking thyroid medication. I have been feeling ill for the last three days. I felt faint last night and broke out in a cold sweat like a fever broke. I do not have the flu this had been happening off and on and I did not know what it was. I have overall body aches or I should say pains. I have stopped the Crestor as of today because of what I heard on our local news. I am also experiencing irregular heartbeats. I am calling my doctor tomorrow. I have not been able to take any of the other statins on the market. With each one I had side effects so my doctor saw Crestor was known for few side effects and well tolerated and put me on it. I have extreme cases of heart disease in my family on both sides. Six of my aunts have died of heart disease as well as my grandparents. I am concerned with my high cholesterol levels but more concerned about this medication. Is there anything else I should know or do?
I just took 7 doses of Crestor 10mg and experienced severe muscle aches in my knees, ankles, wrists and hands. I felt like I was about 80 years old with horrible arthritis. I stopped taking the drug immediately and then this shows up yesterday on the news – I won’t be sticking this drug in my mouth again.
I have been taking 10mg of Crestor for about 5 months and feel just fine. No aches or side effects whatsoever. My total chlorestoral went down 150 points in 3 months. I am now scared because of the problems associated with this drug. I am going to call my doctor today 3/5/04 and find out if I should continue taking the medication. I do not want my liver to malfunction and die.
Ive been taking crestor for six months. Ijust read about it,now I worried.I stoped taking it today. I can not take lipitor or other statin drugs,because I get muscle cramps.anyone have any ideas.thanks Gene
After my first dose of Crestor I started having severe back and stomach pains. Went to dr. a few days later. He was puzzled and ordered back,chest x rays and blood work. I had blood work a week before. My white cells were suddenly elevated and liver emzymes elevated. The dr. was still puzzled. I was running a fever, had palputations, dark urine and bowels were very light in color. The dr. put me on an antibotic for the fever. Still no idea of the problem. Each day was worse I became very weak and very sick. On the day for the seventh pill to be taken I decided to check the web site for side effects. There is was every side effect I had. I stopped Crestor and drank alot of fluids to wash it out of my body. I still have some back and stomach pain. I think I will return to the dr. for follow up advice. If just 6 pills does this to a person what will two or three weeks do.
I have been taking 10 mg of Crestor since October and my LDL has decreased significantly more than it had when I was on Lipitor 20 mg. I am also not experiencing the muscle aches like when I was on with Lipitor. My doctor explained to me that the metabolism of the drug is different than Lipitor and this could be why I didn’t have muscle aches on Crestor. He told me that Crestor is hydrophilic (water soluble) and Lipitor is lipiphilic (lipid or ‘fatty’ soluble). So in other words, when I was on Lipitor the drug metabolized into the fatty-muscle tissue because of it’s lipiphilicity as opposed to the hydrophilicity of Crestor. I completely trust Crestor and I suggest you all ignore the politics and pay attention to the efficacy of the drug.
I am a 35yr old male who suffered a massive heart attack on July 3, 2003. I was placed on Lipitor 10mg. That really didn’t work for me but no side effects were noticed. I now take 20mg of Crestor and have been for almost 3mo. No adverse reactions to speak of. I also take 100mg of beta-blockers per day. I am satisfied with the drug but will be on the look out for the above mentioned side effects.
I started out on 10 mg. of Crestor but it only dropped my cholesterol about 12 points so the doctor put it up to 20 mg. April will be 6 weeks I’ve been on the 20 mg. dose. Since increasing the dosage, I have had chest pains similiar to when I had my quadruple bypass. I just heard about the problem with Crestor today 3-6-04. I suppose I’ll go back to only taking meds. that are “tried and true.” In other words–that have been on the market longer than a year…
crestor is the most studied new statin to ever come to market, and the FDA that was severely criticized for the approval of Baycol a few years back were not going to let another incident occur. They took there time and reviewed many many additional studies of crestor before it came on the market, so much so that at the time of its approval, it was studied in over 12000 pats, 6 times as many pats as liptiro when it was approved. Currently there are more than 1 million pats on crestor worldwide, over 2 million prescriptions. It is just as safe as other statins.
People need to take what sydney wolfe says with a grain of salt, he himself had a chance to discuss his unsubstantiated claims with the FDA advisory panel, which after talking to him approved Crestor UNANIMOUSLY. They would not do that if they saw any dangers out of the ordinary for a statin. So discuss with your doctor, and listen to them, not what syndney wolfe is saying.
by the way i am in no way connected to the drugs, just well read. and to better your understanding of this knowledge i would research crestor a lil bit more, look at the STELLAR trial, published in the am journal of cardiology, sept 15 of last year, and also the Brewer trial which looked at the safety of it compared to the other statins. Educate yourselves on this matter, dont let someones personal agenda sway you. And most importantly take all your questions to your physicians.
This is no wonder drug. Statins are notorious for muscle cramps and other more severe side effects. Watch out for Zocor as well.
If you are concerned about Crestor, then you should be concerned about every statin. Access the Medscape website and you can see how many cases of fatal Rhabdomyolysis have been reported. You’ll see that Lipitor has 6, Zocor has 14, and Pravachol has 3. Look, any substance you put in your body can possibly cause some type of side effect. If the good Dr. Wolfe and his “Public Interest” group, were really so concerned about this issue, he would be against all statins. It would be interesting to see how his non-profit group is funded. The fact is that Crestor seriously challenges the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, Pfizer. Draw your own conclusion!!! Crestor has been more extensively studied than any other statin for safety and the FDA approved the medication unanimously.
There was a message about Crestor being “pulled off the shelves” in pharmacies immediately. They cited 16 deaths and the muscle pain. It scared me greatly. I have the kind of hypercholesterol that’s genetic and I’m about ready to just take my chances, you know? But when the news media, especially CNN(where my sister works and tells me some amazing stories about) is saying there is a major, major severe risk in taking this med, I’m stopping. I took Pravachol for a long time, and when I had an ultrasound done, my liver had areas of fatty tissue, which it did not before. I don’t drink, and don’t eat fatty foods, so, I attribute the change in my liver to the Pravachol(and Zocor, which I’d taken before the Pravachol.)
The risk of lethal side effects on any of the statins is extremely small. I hear rhabdomyolysis is about 1:1000. and is more of a risk when you add a fibrate drug (the Baycol incident) in combination.When it happens it would elevate CPK levels cause muscle pain weakness in proximal muscles in the lower limbs and in a catastrophic case knock off the kidneys. Now hopefully your family doctor is monitoring your liver function tests and your muscle enzymes CPK or CK to prevent this. Statins are all simular but the newer ones more powerful than the older products. If you have diabetes, atherosclerosis or have coronary heart disease or had a heart attack and you can tolerate the statin be it crestor , lipitor, zocor or pravachol etc you would be crazy not to take the drug.This also assumes you are controlling your blood pressure, you do not smoke and are taking an aspirin watching your weight, following a Meditereaean diet and exercising. Remember we have an epidemic of type 2 diabetes due to our sedentary ways and if you have diabetes you have the same risk of a heart attack as someone who has had one heart attack already!
Our problem is people have problems changing lifestyles as life is too busy , motivation is poor, weight loss diets don’t work in the long term (95% of us are the same weight as we started 2years later). So we rely on polypharmacy however there are evidenced based studies that show we save lives and extend useful life with this approach. I am always amazed at the humans ability to deceive his or her self.
Our problem is the cost of these drugs unless you have a drug plan it becomes financially crippling. I also wonder if the drug companies will put a negative spin on a competitors product as all is fair in love and war and marketing. I also believe these products have been well tested, Crestor has been on the market here in Canada 12/12 and longer elsewhere in the world I believe.
You know when you compare deaths due to Statin drugs to anti inflamatory drugs such as advil naprosyn vioxx etc there is no comparison and some of these are sold over the counter.Here in Canada 2000 people die a year from non steroidal anti inflamatories!
The maximum dose we use in Canada for Crestor is 10mg but I see elsewhere up to 40mg used.
Sorry to rabbit on but to prevent a heart attack in a high risk individual and to prevent a 2nd in someone who has had an event already these are great drugs.
GMH MD
I have been on Crestor for about 2 months now. I have been having kidney problems, blood in the urine and bad back pains,. I tried a cholesterol drug before and it dammaged my liver. My doctor felt with the heart disease that is so bad in my family I needed to take something. Now I am so scared after hearing on CNN and reading these messages. I am stopping the Crestor today.
It is obvious to me that majority of the comments on this chat advisory are from Merck and Pfizer reps. Regular patients who take theraputic drugs do not speak in Pharmaceutical language nor do they use the codes or buzz words which help to define the side effects caused by any drug. It is pathetic reading some of these bogus statements by the competition. Elizabeth is obviously a rep, Margie is a Pfizer rep as well as EmToo. Onnie appears to be a Merck rep, and of course there are many others. This is not a very good sales technique. Crestor is a perfectly safe compound. Doctors have seen nothing but positive results thus far. This Wolfe character sounds like an idiot. If he had anything significant to say, it would have been addressed by the FDA prior to the approval of this well studied drug. For all of the Merck and Pfizer reps, how many cases of severe side effects have you had with your drug? Muscle cramps, Rabdo, Protein in the urine, deaths? What will I find if I read your PI?
Somehow, I am not convinced of any issues with Crestor. I checked out that Stellar trial, WOW…..Crestor crushed all of the competitors. I wonder if that concerns the mighty mighty Pfizer, enough that they would draw undo, unfair attention to Crestor by employing someone such as Wolfe and his little controversy group? The politics of the Pharma industry can sometimes cloud the reality of the efficacy and benefits of certain drugs. If you are on a drug now, which you have some concerns about, simply ask your doctor if you should take issue. Chances are you will find out that there are many smoke screens created by organizations who fear a loss in profits when they are shown a product better than their own. Giants are no longer Giants when they are amoung other Giants, they are vunerable.
It’s a shame Crestor is the drug that has been targeted. I’ve found it to be an effective and safe drug. Reading ANY PI (insert) on ANY drug will scare many.
Harrison, you forgot to tell us who you work for? Oh thats right, obviuosly a Crestor Rep for AstraZeneca, or are you a scientist there or possibly a PR person? And you are obviously the same person as rsr, quoting a “stellar trial”, right.
You don’t believe the comments here, they read pretty easy how can you disregard them so easily. Look at Anna Parker’s, Sharon, Chris,
When I took Lipitor and Pravachol, my CPK went above 8,000 (all muscle), with myalgias. I take Crestor, My Cholesterol is 140 (prev high 283), and my CPK is 190. I have no muscle pain. Please don’t make the mistake of pulling this drup for economic reasons. Look at the true incidence of complications. All statins have risks, but this one agrees with me.
Hmmm… crestor takes market share from lipitor… Sydney Wolfe attends Pfizer regional meetings and is a paid consultant… timely “news” story appears as Crestor share soars in doctor’s offices … sounds like Sydney and Pfizer are up to their old tricks. Hope he got paid well, because he will be paying eternally someday.
has crestor been withdrawn from the
market?
I was just prescribed to take crestor
for my high cholesterol levels!
I dont want to fill a prescription if
its not safe.
A rep showed me this website during lunch today. This is a joke. For one, it is ran by lawyers. That ought to tell you something. Secondly, anyone that knows Dr. Sidney Wolf knows that he is a quack. Crestor is a great new statin. It lowers LDL much greater than other statins at a low 10mg dose. For my patients, this is important due to the adverse events that inevitably come with higher doses of other statins, notably Zocor and Lipitor.
Also, Crestor has been a good choice for my patients either needing a bump in HDL or not being able to afford a decline in HDL (that comes with higher doses of Lipitor).
The bottom line is the efficacy is there. The safety is there, too. Crestor does not even remotely resemble Baycol (Cerivastatin). In fact, to tell the truth, Baycol was more like Lipitor and Zocor than anything else due to similiar metabolism routes via 3A4 pathways versus the 2C9 pathways for Pravachol or Crestor. Crestor has the safety profile of PRavachol with the best overall efficacy in the statin class.
It will be a blockbuster for Astra. By the way, if there are any reps on this site please stick to the positives of your own drug. Otherwise, I tune you out. If you lie, I throw you out and ban you from my office. I did not go to school for 20+ years to have a snotty nose kid act like a used car salesman. You ruin your industry when you act like that.
I have had two different reps try to bring this Crestor topic up with me. Both tiptoed around it trying make veiled references to Crestor killing people. I should have let them keep talking but I cut them off and said that Crestor was just as safe as Pravastatin, which is VERY safe.
Next time, if there is one, I will let them hang themselves.
BTW, my wife is a rep and sells respiratory drugs. So, I know a little about pharma.
Lipid Doc, please check my March 5th comments. I was very ill from the time I took the first pill. After just six I was unable to preform any of my daily duties. Have you seen any of this in anyone you prescribed Crestor for. It is very hard to see your side of this knowing how ill I was. Two days after stopping this medicine I was back on my feet again and feeling great.
Pharm.D. here – Quickly wanted to give my opinion. I feel as though a lot of medication withdrawals from the market are knee jerk reactions when the medication is not being used properly. As everyone knows, taking medication is a risk-benefit situation – in EVERY situation. Introducing a foreign chemical to your body will natural produce unwanted effects. In the case of Crestor, I feel as though currently there is little need to push the panic button. It’s side effect profile is better than the statins class-wide, and its LDL lowering at low doses is comparable to atorvastatin, simvastatin, and others at high doses.
I have seen very positive effects with my patients – even HDL improvement.
As always, a drug in the public will produce different events than in controlled drug trials – therefore MUCH more information will need to be made available in prospective and post-marketing studies. But to all my patients I would not recommend them to d/c the medicine at this time.
i have been on crestor for aboout one month, i experience muscle soreness. i am so many other drus this news scares me aboout the FDA pulling this drug. but i think that would be for the best since it has only been on the market five months.
People do have adverse events with statins. It sounds like you had a severe case of myalgia. It happens sometimes. It is no reason to take the drug off the market. If that were the case then we would not have any antibiotics. My young son was on Augmentin which caused terrible diaheria. Does that mean Augmentin should be removed from the market? no. This thing with Crestor will probably grow into a warning for ALL statins which is going to be that much tougher to get patients to maintain compliance. What Sidney Wolf is doing is irresponsible and he should be censured by the AMA.
The risk v. benefit with statins is enough for me to give them to just about all of my patients. Crestor lowers LDL greater, at a lower dose, than any other statin. I see more AEs when I titrate up in dose on statins that I do at the starting dose. I generally expect to see 5-10% of patients complain of muscle aches (myalgia). With Crestor’s starting dose, my clinical experience with over 60 patients is 1 patient to complain of muscle aches. This patient is also morbidly obese and has not tolerated any statin.
I feel this move to take Crestor off the market is totally unfounded. Did you hear about the 39 year old that died? This patient was on 12 other medications, had fell and died without regaining consciousness. And, yet, the death is attributed to Crestor? Unbelievable. I suspect Astra just might be pursuing litigation against Wolf and the firestorm he has created over basically nothing.
After 42 days of taking Crestor, 10mg daily, I started retaining fluid, urine volume was reduced, and finally had 2 episodes of brown urine, prompting my doctor to have blood and urine tests done. 2 weeks and 2 more blood/urine tests showed a steady deterioration in my condition, and I have been diagnosed with acute renal failure. Public Citizen can now add me to their list of patients suffering renal failure after a “low dose” of Crestor. PLEASE get this deadly drug off the market.
I have been on Crestor for 6 weeks, and must admit that I am VERY sensitive to drugs and have had to stop using a multitude for various medical conditions. Since beginning this drug, I and my doctor have noticed more swelling (edema) in my hands, legs and feet. In addition, I have had headaches, stiffness and pain in most of my joints, headaches, changes in digestive process and dizziness. Am I still on the drug? YES. I have already had one heart attack and 2 stents–which were directly after having a test result of 167 total cholestrol with a HDL of less than 70. So, go figure.
I have taken both Lipitor and secondly Crestor(10mg). After 5 months on Lipitor I developed sciatic pains down both legs. I stopped the Lipitor for 10 months. Got completely better. Dr persuaded me to use Crestor. After 5 weeks on Crestor I went down with a massive sciatica attack, 2 crutches for 2 weeks just to get around. Now 7 months later I still have numbness in left leg and recently have started getting edema in both legs. I haven’t connected edema yet with statins but I have the sciatic nerve problems.
I hope when Crestor gets pulled, and it will, that Lipid Doc, you, take your Hippocratic oath again….you must be getting paid off.
I have been on Crestor 10 mgs since 8-15-03 My cholestrol was 328 Trys -75 – HDL 119- LDL 155 . after taking Crestor 4 months, Cholestrol dropped to 198 ,Trys- 83; HDL- 121, LDL-60 I have had no side effects , and am still taking 10 mgs a day, I have taken Lipitor ,and Zocar ; with bad side effects, [muscle spasms ] My Dr. tells me this a safe statin to take . I hope they do not take it off the market , also the high cholestrol is heredatary in my family .
Posted by Lee G . March 23 2004
I am unable to take any of the cholesterol meds because of severe leg cramps. The Dr. thought crestor might be the answer, however, after about a week it started causing really severe ankle and cramps in the back of my legs. It felt like the bones in my ankles and legs were going to break. I have no idea what to do. One thing good is my HDL which is 66. My total and LDL is pretty elevated. Are there any answers?
I have not been able to take any other kind of cholorestral medication but my doctor prescribed Crestor. After about a week I began having trouble waking up frequently in the night. I switched times and began taking it after breakfast in the morning and am not having any more trouble sleeping but all of a sudden my sugar has elevated. I was completely off the diabetes medication after losing 42 lbs but the weight loss did nothing for my cholestral. So do I die from a stroke or do I die from complications of diabetes? Other than this I have no other side effects and have been on it for about two weeks. Will be having blood work next week and am anxious to see if it has done anything to my levels.
I’ve been of Crestor (10mg) for 3 weeks. My cholesterol had dropped from 215 to 175. However I’m having problems controlling my glucose levels >200. I’ve been a diabetic for about 10 years and have never had levels this high. I’m taking Metformin 500mg XR (2) and Glynase 3 mg (4). I have used Lipitor but experienced serious liver problems (medicine induced hepatitis).
I am a diabetic, and was on 10mg lipitor every other day. It was evbery other day due to muscle pains, high liver enzymes, and high cpk. I amon insulin for diabetes. Because of low hdl, my new doctor switched me to crestor. My sugar zoomed up. With no change in diet my fasting sugar was 200….from 120. I raised insulin dosage a lot, and still cannot control diabetes. I think crestor is bad for diabetics. There should be an immediate study. This drug is not for everybody…even at 10 mg.
my DR put me on crestor todat, but after reading about the side effects i have seconds thoughts about it
From what I’ve read, both Crestor and Lipitor are still quite effective even with drastically reduced dosing. So an obvious prudent response to side effects such as muscle pain (which is a warning sign for much more serious problems!), is to reduce the dose.
I’ve been reading up about statins, and I have compiled some info here:
http://burtonsys.com/cholesterol.html
According to an article referenced there, 10 mg Crestor daily reduced LDL-C typically by 50%, 2.5 mg reduced LDL-C by 40%, and even just 1 mg Crestor still reduced LDL-C by 33%. That’s not bad! 1/4 the dose gets you 80% of the benefit, or 1/10 the dose for 66% of the benefit — and probably a LOT lower risk of side effects!
Another article shows similar dose dependence for Lipitor: 40 mg Lipitor daily reduced LDL-C typically by 50%, and 10 mg reduced it by 39%. Just as with Crestor, 1/4 dose gave almost 80% of the benefit. The study didn’t evaluate even smaller doses, but I’ll bet that, just like Crestor, Lipitor still gives appreciable benefit with even smaller doses.
One problem is that these drugs don’t come in really small doses. The smallest Lipitor tablet is 10 mg, and the smallest Crestor tablet is 5 mg. That makes it hard to do 1 mg dosing!
But with a pill-splitter you could presumably approximate 1/2 or 1/4 of a dose. Crestor, especially, has a pretty long half-life in the body (~20 hrs), so if you don’t manage to split the pill exactly it’s probably not the end of the world. You should probably spit ‘em as you take ‘em, rather than splitting ‘em all ahead of time, so that you won’t take several “small halves” (or “large halves”) in succession.
Caveat: I’m not a doctor! So ask you doctor first!!
-Dave
I just got back from a follow-up with my doctor. My total cholesterol dropped from 227 in Oct 2003 to 156 in May 2004 with Crestor 10 mg. I have been on Lipitor, Lescol and another cholesterol lowering drug and could never achieve thse results. My total CPK is 340. I do not have any muscle pain but I am still concerned. Any recommendation from any of you would be welcome; you may e-mail me. Thanks. MBj in Las Vegas.
My e-mail address is: mitchq1@yahoo.com
Follow-up (see April 04, 2004) Recently experienced severe diarrhea for eight days–went to hospital (dehydrated)) Three negative stool tests. Suspect either Crestor (10mg) or Metformin XR (2/500mg). Discontinued both.
Crestor is perfectly fine. No-one should be concerned because of side-effects. The drug has some of the best safety data behind it, it has been launched in 51 countries and with LDL targets getting lower, more effective therapies are needed. Your Dr should monitor LFTs b4 and at 12 weeks, if any myopathy occurs then get your CK levels checked. If they are x5 above base-line then the drug will be withdrawn, but plse be aware that doing simple tasks like gardening can raise levels x3 and will cause aches and pains!! Rhabdomyolisis is a very rare event but is a ‘class effect’ relating to statins. Statistically you have a greater chance of getting a serious GI bleed on asprin than developing this. High cholesterol is a more serious problem and the risks of a cardiovascular event are more serious than taking a perfectly good, well tested product. All this negativity surrounding Crestor is because it is the 1st statin to be launched since the withdrawral of Cerivastatin and Public Citizen have been on the backs of drug companies for-everl; plus they asked for the discontinuation of Lipitor and Zocor when it was launched so they have a long standing issue with statins. Considering how many lives they save I wonder if their interests really are about the public!!
I took this drug for ten weeks and almost died. My kidneys are seriously damaged. I have little energy. I also took Lipitor and Zocor in the past, but my doctor thought this was a “miracle drug.” Miraculously, I am still alive. I was on 10mg./day. It’s a BAD drug. Shame on the FDA.
Up-date: Resumed Metformin ER (500mgx3). Also taking 1 Zetia (10mg)in place of Crestor. Haven’t experienced any problems with diarrhea or sugar. (diabetic).
Everyone who experiences severe side effects while taking Crestor should file a consumer report with MedWatch. Go to worstpills.org, click on their link, and either file online, or download the form with instructions and mail to the FDA. And please make sure your doctor files a report too. Those of us who have experienced rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure do not want anyone else to go through what we did. It’s time the FDA pulled Crestor off the market.
The link to MedWatch on the worstpills.org website is “How to report adverse events”.
I have been on 10mgs Crestor for 2mths (no side effects what so ever) and my total went from 312 to 207 and HDL went way up. My docotr said to increase to 20mgs and then recheck in 6mths. I said that seems excessive and agreed to return in 3mths for another blood test. Well, I have been on 20mgs for about 2-weeks now and have started having back, leg and arm cramps. I’m gonna start cutting these things in half to see if the cramps stop and to see if my levels drop further on just 10mgs. Of course, I’m not going to tell my doc. I switched back to 10mgs.
I took 10mg of lipitor and had the worse muscle aches you can imagine. I was switched to crestor and have had no muscle issues and my ldl was reduced to half. This drug is a lifesaver!
Does anyone know anything about Zocar causing delusional disorders. Drug literature says nothing. Problem started about the same time as initiation of medicine.
Doctor suggested going from 10mg to 20mg. Serious muscle cramps. Switched back to 10mg and cramps gone…
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