FDA warns about muscle damage from drug combo

WASHINGTON Combining some heart drugs could cause muscular damage, Reuters reported the Food and Drug Administration as warning.

The FDA said it had received reports of the muscle injury rhabdomyolysis, which can cause kidney failure or death, related to combining the cholesterol drug simvastatin and the arrythmia drug amiodarone. The agency issued a warning about the risks of combining the drugs in 2002.

All statin drugs have the risk of causing rhabdomyolysis, but the risk becomes greater when simvastatin is combined with amiodarone.

Simvastatin is the active ingredient in Merck’s Simcor and Abbott Laboratories’ Zocor, as well as an ingredient in Merck’s and Schering-Plough’s Vytorin. Amiodarone is the active ingredient in Wyeth’s Cordarone and Upsher-Smith’s Pacerone.