Brilinta vs. Eliquis
Are Brilinta and Eliquis the Same Thing?
Brilinta (ticagrelor) and Eliquis (apixaban) are anticoagulants (blood thinners).
Brilinta is used to reduce cardiovascular death and heart attack in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).
Eliquis is used to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.
Side effects of Brilinta and Eliquis that are similar include nausea.
Side effects of Brilinta that are different from Eliquis include bruising, bleeding more easily, nosebleeds, headache, dizziness, cough, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, back pain, fatigue, and chest pain.
Side effects of Eliquis that are different from Brilinta include skin rash, allergic reactions, fainting, and anemia.
Both Brilinta and Eliquis may interact with other medicines to treat or prevent blood clots and blood thinners.
Brilinta may also interact with antifungal medicines, antiviral medicines to treat HIV or AIDS, cholesterol medications, heart or blood pressure medications, opioid medications, seizure medicines, and tuberculosis medicines.
Eliquis may also interact with antidepressants, CYP3A4 inhibitors (such as Serzone, Sporanox, Nizoral, Vfend, Reyataz, Biaxan and Ketek), aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and other medicines to help prevent or treat blood clots.
What Are Possible Side Effects of Brilinta?
Common side effects of Brilinta are related to bleeding and include increased bleeding, nosebleeds, and bruising.
Other side effects of Brilinta include:
- dizziness,
- cough,
- nausea,
- diarrhea,
- irregular heartbeat,
- high or low blood pressure,
- back pain,
- fatigue, and
- chest pain
What Are Possible Side Effects of Eliquis?
Common side effects of Eliquis include:
- skin rash,
- allergic reactions,
- fainting, nausea, and
- anemia.
Tell your doctor if you have serious side effects of Eliquis including easy bruising, unusual bleeding (nose, mouth, vagina, or rectum), bleeding from wounds or needle injections, any bleeding that will not stop; heavy menstrual periods; headache, dizziness, weakness, feeling like you might pass out; red, pink, or brown urine; black or bloody stools, coughing up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds; numbness, tingling, or muscle weakness (especially in your legs and feet); or loss of movement in any part of your body.
What Is Brilinta?
Brilinta is a prescription medicine used to treat people who have had a heart attack or severe chest pain that happened because their heart was not getting enough oxygen.
Brilinta is used to lower your chance of having a heart attack or dying from a heart attack or stroke but Brilinta (and similar drugs) can cause bleeding that can be serious and sometimes lead to death.
What Is Eliquis?
Eliquis (apixaban) is an anticoagulant (blood thinner) that reduces blood clotting and reduces the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.
What Drugs Interact With Brilinta?
Brilinta may interact with other blood thinners, HIV or AIDS medications, seizure medications, and antifungals. Brilinta may also interact with dexamethasone, digoxin, nefazodone, antibiotics, cholesterol-lowering medications, and heart or blood pressure medications.
Brilinta may also interact with dexamethasone (Decadron), digoxin (Lanoxin, Digitek, Digibind), nefazodone (Serzone), certain antibiotics, cholesterol-lowering medications (statins), and heart or blood pressure medications.
What Drugs Interact With Eliquis?
Eliquis may interact with blood thinners and heparin, antibiotics, antidepressants, antifungals, antithrombotics, bone marrow stimulants, bosentan, conivaptan, cyclosporine, dextran, heart or blood pressure medications, hepatitis C medications, HIV/AIDS medications, imatinib, isoniazid, nefazodone, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), rifabutin, rifampin, rifapentine, salicylates (such as aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, and others), seizure medications, St. John's wort, thrombopoietic growth factors, or vasodilators.
How Should Brilinta be Taken?
Brilinta can be taken with or without food.
Brilinta is taken with aspirin. Talk to your doctor about the dose of aspirin that you should take with Brilinta. You should not take a dose of aspirin higher than 100 mg daily because it can affect how well Brilinta works. Do not take doses of aspirin higher than what your doctor tells you to take. Tell your doctor if you take other medicines that contain aspirin, and do not take new over-the-counter medicines with aspirin in them.
How Should Eliquis be Taken?
The recommended dose of Eliquis for most patients is 5 mg taken orally twice daily.
The recommended dose of Eliquis is 2.5 mg twice daily in patients with at least two of the following characteristics:
- age ≥ 80 years
- body weight ≤ 60 kg
- serum creatinine ≥ 1.5 mg/dL
