This is a review of Uloric (febuxostat), with particular emphasis on the comparison with allopurinol as a gout treatment. Like allopurinol, febuxostat (marketed as Uloric or Adenuric), is designed to lower uric acid to safe levels. The safe level is 5mg/dL (0.30mmol/L), but you and your doctor may plan for a lower target for several months to dissolve old uric acid deposits quicker. Therefore, there is no standard dose for either of these gout medications, and your doctor should set the dose to achieve your target uric acid level controlled by uric acid blood tests.
Pros And Cons Of Allopurinol And Uloric
Allopurinol has been used safely to control gout for over 40 years. It has an excellent safety record, but is not tolerated by a very small percentage of gout patients. Most doctors recommend trying allopurinol first, then switching to febuxostat (Uloric/Adenuric) if it does not suit the patient. As a new drug, Uloric and Adenuric are far more expensive than febuxostat. This may change in future when licensing restrictions are relaxed, and the gout medicine is available as generic febuxostat.
Febuxostat vs Allopurinol Report
- Author:
- Reinders MK, Jansen TL.
- Title:
- Management of hyperuricemia in gout: focus on febuxostat.
- Published:
- Clin Interv Aging. 2010 Feb 2;5:7-18.
Febuxostat vs Allopurinol Clarification
This report focuses on febuxostat vs allopurinol, but febuxostat is the generic term for an alternative to allopurinol which is, at the time of writing, still under license. This means that you can only buy febuxostat as Uloric or Adenuric – the brand name varies between countries, but where I mention febuxostat, you can interchange Uloric or Adenuric. These are three different names for the same drug, though I tend to use febuxostat most because it is common to all countries.
Therefore, though this page is about febuxostat compared to allopurinol, I could also have called it Uloric vs allopurinol, or Adenuric vs allopurinol.
Febuxostat Versus Allopurinol: Next Steps
If you have questions about febuxostat vs allopurinol enter your question into the search box to see if we are already discussing Uloric vs allopurinol, Adenuric vs allopurinol, or a similar topic. Alternatively, simply ask your question in the gout forum.
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