Lesinurad (Zurampic®)
Lesinurad (Zurampic® or, combined with allopurinol, Duzallo®) is designed to help you lower your uric acid levels to manage gout and prevent gout attacks. It is not used to treat an acute gout attack or its symptoms. It is not used to treat hyperuricemia in people who do not have gout.
You may experience a gout attack (flare) when taking lesinurad. If you have gout attacks while taking lesinurad, your doctor can prescribe another treatment, such as colchicine or an NSAID or a corticosteroid, to treat the acute inflammation or its symptoms. You should not stop taking your lesinurad if you have a gout flare.
How does Lesinurad (Zurampic®) work?
Lesinurad (Zurampic®) is a selective uric acid reabsorption inhibitor (SURI). This means that Zurampic helps the body eliminate excess uric acid via the kidneys. It’s used to treat hyperuricemia in combination with an xanthine oxidase inhibitor (XOI) drug for people with gout who have not achieved a sufficiently low uric acid level with just the XOI. XOIs help decrease the amount of uric acid your body produces.
Lesinurad is not used alone to treat hyperuricemia in people who have gout, and it’s not used in people who have hyperuricemia but have not been diagnosed with gout. In fact, you should not take lesinurad without taking it in combination with an XOI, as it appears to have more of a risk for the kidney if taken alone. You should take your dose of lesinurad in the morning, with food and water.
Lesinurad is taken by mouth once a day along with your XOI. The dosage is 200 mg, and you should not take more than that each day. If you miss a dose, don’t take it later in the day and don’t take a double dose the next time.
Your doctor will assess your kidney (renal) function before you start lesinurad, and monitor your kidney function regularly. You should take lesinurad with food and water, and also drink about two liters of water or other fluids each day while you are on this drug.
People who have severe kidney problems, are on kidney dialysis, have had a kidney transplant, have tumor lysis syndrome (breakdown of cancer cells that may cause high uric acid levels), or have Lesch-Nyhan syndrome should not take lesinurad. Females should tell their doctors if they are pregnant, plan to become pregnant or are breastfeeding before they start lesinurad.
Side Effects of Lesinurad
Lesinurad (Zurampic® or, combined with allopurinol, Duzallo®) could cause kidney side effects if you take the drug alone without your xanthine oxidase inhibitor or if you take more than 200 mg per day.
The most common side effects of lesinurad are elevated blood creatinine levels(a measure of kidney function), headache, flu and heartburn (or GERD). People who take lesinurad may also have serious heart-related problems like heart attack or stroke, but it’s unknown at this time if that is connected to lesinurad use (and in published studies, there was no increase in cardiovascular events in patients taking lesinurad with allopurinol versus patients on allopurinol alone).
Lesinurad may have interactions with other drugs, including high-dose aspirin and hormonal birth control therapy (“The Pill”). There are other drug interactions with lesinurad as well, and you should be sure that the doctor prescribing your lesinurad has a full list of all medications you are taking for any reason.
