Patients who are taking an ARB should contact their pharmacist and physician to determine whether the medications they are taking are on the list, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a cardiologist and an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.that have been recalled. In addition to losartan, two other ARBs have also been affected, valsartan and irbesartan. But Khan suggests people also check with their doctors.
If a patient is currently taking one of the recalled medications, they shouldn’t worry because “there are lots of alternative blood pressure medications that patients can be switched over to,” Khan said. “The most important thing is to not stop your medication without speaking with your doctor because of the dangers ofHigh blood pressure and heart failure aren’t the only conditions these drugs are used to treat, Khan noted.
Patients taking recalled drugs also shouldn’t worry about cancer risk, because the risk is ultimately low, said Dr. Prashant Vaishnava, a cardiologist and director of quality and inpatient services at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. While the chemical contaminant in question has been linked to an increased risk of stomach and kidney cancer, “if 8,000 people took the highest dose of the recalled batches for four years, there might be one additional cancer over the lifetime of those 8,000 people,” Vaishnava said.
There are plenty of alternatives to the recalled medications in the same class of drugs, Vaishnava said, and usually, “patients will be alerted by their pharmacist or physician as to whether their medication is affected by the recall.”