If simvastatin or lovastatin are combined with dabigatran—brand name Pradaxa, an anti-clotting drug—hemorrhage risk increases.
A study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that within a cohort of almost 46,000 patients treated with dabigatran, the use of simvastatin or lovastatin, relative to other statins, increased the risk of a major hemorrhage by approximately 42 percent.*
Administrative data supported the authors' hypothesis that these two commonly-prescribed, cholesterol-lowering statins would "increase the amount of dabigatran absorbed by the body," reads the St. Michael's Hospital press release, "something other statins would not be expected to do." A higher concentration of dabigatran, in turn, would result in higher bleeding risk.