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The makers of Baycol withdrew the drug from the market in August 2001 due to the risks of fatal rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle reaction.

The Bayer Pharmaceutical Division, makers of Baycol, withdrew the drug from the market in August 2001 due to the risks of fatal rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle reaction. The FDA initially approved Baycol in 1997 as a “statin” drug, which is a type of drug that reduces cholesterol levels by blocking a specific protein that is involved in producing cholesterol in the body. Baycol was originally prescribed to heart attack patients, but ended up causing severe muscle cell damage, which can lead to kidney failure.

Rhabdomyolysis is rarely fatal, but Baycol patients are ten times more likely to die from the muscle damage disease. Rhabdomyolysis is commonly seen as a result of major automobile accidents, and is rarely seen as a result of prescription medication. However, Baycol is known to have caused more than 30 deaths. Some of those deaths were caused when patients took Baycol along with gemfibrozil, another lipid-lowering agent. The rest of the deaths occurred because patients were started at the very highest possible dosages, which went against what Bayer recommended. Although Baycol is no longer recommended, people still suffer from Baycol-related injuries today. Contact a personal injury lawyer if you suffered an injury caused by Baycol.

The liver is the body part that produces cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol, and while HDL cholesterol is good for you (it carriers cholesterol away from the arteries), LDL is very bad (it builds up in the arteries that supply blood to the heart and veins). Baycol worked directly in the liver to block the production of LDL. Unfortunately, the drug can also lead to rhabdomyolysis. Symptoms of the muscle reaction include:

• muscle pain
• muscle weakness
• muscle tenderness
• malaise
• fever
• dark urine
• nausea
• vomiting

By September 2003, Bayer announced that it had settled more than 1,300 cases, totaling more than $400 million.