Industry, Joint Stock Company, Sarajevo

All important drug interactions, with the possible exception of idiosyncratic or al-lergic reactions, have a pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic basis, or both (1). A study of the mechanisms of drug interactions is of much value in selecting proper drug combi-nations in order to provide rational therapy, especially for drugs that have a narrow margin of safety and where drugs are used for a prolonged period of time. Most re-cently, pharmacogenetics has linked drug interaction outcomes to variations in genes encoding cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (2) and transporter genes. Statins (or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) represent a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. As of 2010, a number of statins have been on the market: atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, pitavastatin, pravastatin, rosu-vastatin, and simvastatin (3). Statins are associated with two uncommon, but important, adverse effects, asympto-matic elevation in liver enzyme activity and myopathy. In 2001, cerivastatin was with-drawn from the market worldwide because of an unacceptably high incidence of seriou