

Other adverse experiences not dose-related but reported are fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, and somnolence. Incidents of dose-related dizziness, flushing, and palpitation also have been observed.įor several reported adverse experiences that appear to be drug and dose related (edema, flushing, palpitations), there was a greater incidence in women than in men associated with amlodipine treatment. The most common dose-related adverse reaction to amlodipine is edema.
Azor 10 40 mg full#
See Full Prescribing Information for additional Adverse Reactions (6). Worsening angina and acute myocardial infarction can develop after starting or increasing the dose of KATERZIA, particularly in patients with severe obstructive coronary artery disease.īecause KATERZIA is extensively metabolized by the liver, and the plasma elimination half-life is 56 hours in patients with impaired hepatic function, titrate slowly when administering KATERZIA to patients with severe hepatic impairment. Because of the gradual onset of action, acute hypotension is unlikely. Symptomatic hypotension is possible, particularly in patients with severe aortic stenosis. KATERZIA is contraindicated in patients with known sensitivity to amlodipine. When in doubt, contact your local retail pharmacist to determine what strengths of a medication are available and if the pricing for these different strengths are the same or nearly similar.ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION: Contraindications: This list is not exhaustive many more examples exist. In addition, because a patient may be started on a lower-dosage strength, it is common for a physician to instruct his or her patient to use some multiple of the current prescription instead of writing a new one.įollowing is a list of examples of once-daily medications that have multiple dosage strengths with either parity or near-parity pricing. Once patients exhaust their samples, many physicians simply write prescriptions for the same multiple-units-per-day regimen to continue therapy. Inappropriate drug titration and drug sampling – physicians often use samples to test patient tolerability and provide a supply of medication through the titration phase of therapy. Lack of clinician awareness – a physician may be unaware that a medication is available in multiple dosage strengths and unaware of the price differences among those dosages. If the savings are significant and the switch is simple, why don’t providers optimize their patients’ drug regimens more often? There are several reasons, including: Lastly, simplifying the dosage schedule may also improve patient compliance and lower out-of-pocket costs for your patients. This could save the health care system nearly half a million dollars ($486,131) annually! Dose optimization for drugs without parity pricing, such as AZOR®, can also lead to significant cost savings over the long term when used for treatment of chronic conditions such as hypertension or hyperlipidemia. An even more dramatic example of dose optimization is switching a patient on REVLIMID® from five 5-mg tablets per day to a single 25-mg tablet per day. A conversion from two 20 mg tablets to one 40 mg could save an estimated $1,717 over 12 months. This intervention is particularly successful for those medications available in a number of different strengths with parity (or near-parity) pricing.įor example, both the 20 mg and 40 mg strengths of LIPITOR® have a similar average wholesale price (AWP) of $4.77 a tablet. One simple cost-saving measure, dose optimization, refers to the identification of patients who receive multiple units of a lower-strength, once-daily maintenance medication and consolidating (or “optimizing”) the dosing regimen to an equivalent daily dosage of the same medication given as a single unit. Health care organizations are being tasked with providing costly new technologies, expanding services, and improving quality of care – all while trying to control medical and pharmaceutical costs.
