Bayer faces shake up after Lipobay withdrawn

Two months after the withdrawal of cerivastatin (Lipobay) from the market because of associated deaths, the German manufacturer, Bayer, is still facing possible damaging consequences. In particular, it faces a collective legal claim by patients in the United States and is also having to restructure the firm.

In August Bayer decided to take cerivastatin off the market when several cases of deaths due to rhabdomyolysis came to light as a presumed consequence of high dose cerivastatin, especially in combination with another cholesterol lowering drug gemfibrozil (18 August, p 359).

There was a public …