Staying Current With Drug Interactions

There are thousands of FDA approved therapies and trying to be aware of all the drug-to-drug interactions and side effects, especially as newer medicines are continuously coming on the market, can be extremely difficult for clinicians.

To this point, Douglas S. Paauw, MD, MACP, professor of medicine, University of Washington, presented a scientific session, What Medications Should We Be Wary Of? The Fine Print, at the recent ACP conference.

Paauw discussed numerous therapies outside of infectious disease, but he did touch upon Paxlovid.

“There is a drug interaction with statins [and Paxlovid],” explains Paauw. “For many of our patients who are on statins for primary prevention we can just stop the statin and put them on Paxlovid…many times we can work around those drug interactions.”

One area of concern as it applies to therapies and patients’ concerns is when they are prescribed new medicines and might be told there are several side effects. This can make people hesitant to adhere to the regimens, explains Paauw.

To overcome this, Paauw explains upfront communication between clinicians and patients on what the most likely side effects are can help alleviate this concern. “What we can do upfront is to highlight what we are worried about.”

Contagion spoke to Paaw who offered some insights on interactions and resources for understanding dosing, contraindications, and side effects.