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What Are The Adverse Effects Of Shifting From Pravastatin To Atorvastatin?

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Posted on Tue, 30 Jun 2015
Question: I was taking pravastatin for a year and it seemed to b effective. My Kaiser permanente doctor informed me he was switching me to atorvastatin because of lower cost. He assured me the two drugs were roughly the same, but could the change result in side effects? Is the cheaper drug just as good? I originally suffered side effects from simvastatin resulting in a change to pravastatin.
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Answered by Dr. Sara Garcia (26 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
Dear Ed

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for using our service. All the generics drugs have been evaluated to have the same effect that the brand name. When you compare two generics drugs as Atorvastatin and simvastatin, they also have the same effect .However, some insurances get better prices from pharmaceutical companies making generics and that is why they create a preferred formulary of drugs,sometimes they include Atorvastatin or any other Statin that has a generic. Do not worry because one is cheaper than other, they will do the same effect.Hoever, patients can have less side effects with one particular type of drug from the same class and that is a reason to change to the most tolerable drug.
I hope I was able to answer your concern,
Dr.Sara
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
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Dr. Sara Garcia

Internal Medicine Specialist

Practicing since :1988

Answered : 505 Questions

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What Are The Adverse Effects Of Shifting From Pravastatin To Atorvastatin?

Brief Answer: Dear Ed Detailed Answer: Thanks for using our service. All the generics drugs have been evaluated to have the same effect that the brand name. When you compare two generics drugs as Atorvastatin and simvastatin, they also have the same effect .However, some insurances get better prices from pharmaceutical companies making generics and that is why they create a preferred formulary of drugs,sometimes they include Atorvastatin or any other Statin that has a generic. Do not worry because one is cheaper than other, they will do the same effect.Hoever, patients can have less side effects with one particular type of drug from the same class and that is a reason to change to the most tolerable drug. I hope I was able to answer your concern, Dr.Sara