Glipizide and Colesevelam Interaction
Drug interaction information between Glipizide and Colesevelam.
Glipizide and Colesevelam have a documented minor interaction in FDA labeling.
FDA drug labeling documents a minor-severity interaction between Glipizide and Colesevelam. Major interactions are generally avoided, moderate ones may need monitoring or a dose adjustment, and minor ones are usually low-risk. This page shows the documented mechanism and guidance. Label-documented interactions are not a complete safety review, so always confirm your own medications with a pharmacist or doctor. Educational information, not medical advice.
How They Interact
Colesevelam can bind to glipizide in your digestive system, which stops the medicine from being absorbed into your body. This makes the glipizide less effective at controlling your blood sugar.
What To Do
Take your glipizide at least 4 hours before you take colesevelam. This gap ensures that the diabetes medicine is fully absorbed before the other drug interferes with it.
FDA Label Information
In studies assessing the effect of colesevelam on the pharmacokinetics of glipizide ER in healthy volunteers, reductions in glipizide AUC 0-∞ and C max of 12% and 13%, respectively were observed when colesevelam was co-administered with glipizide ER. When glipizide ER was administered 4 hours prior to colesevelam, there was no significant change in glipizide AUC 0-∞ or C max , -4% and 0%, respectively. Therefore, glipizide should be administered at least 4 hours prior to colesevelam to ensure that colesevelam does not reduce the absorption of glipizide.
Glipizide Also Interacts With
- Fluconazole minor
- Probenecid minor
- Phenytoin minor
- Lovastatin minor
- Posaconazole minor
Colesevelam Also Interacts With
- Olmesartan moderate
- Metformin minor
- Warfarin minor
- Norethindrone minor
- Cyclosporine minor
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take Glipizide and Colesevelam together?
This is a minor interaction. Take your glipizide at least 4 hours before you take colesevelam. This gap ensures that the diabetes medicine is fully absorbed before the other drug interferes with it.
How serious is the interaction between Glipizide and Colesevelam?
This interaction is classified as "minor" severity by the FDA. Minor interactions are unlikely to cause significant problems but should still be mentioned to your healthcare provider.
Why do Glipizide and Colesevelam interact?
Colesevelam can bind to glipizide in your digestive system, which stops the medicine from being absorbed into your body. This makes the glipizide less effective at controlling your blood sugar.
Understanding the Glipizide and Colesevelam Interaction
FDA-approved prescribing information for these two drugs flags their combination as a minor-severity interaction. Glipizide belongs to the Sulfonylurea class and Colesevelam belongs to the Bile Acid Sequestrant (Diabetes) class - two categories that can collide when co-prescribed. The mechanism described in FDA labeling is: Colesevelam can bind to glipizide in your digestive system, which stops the medicine from being absorbed into your body. Severity tiers matter: major flags generally advise avoidance, moderate flags often require monitoring or dose adjustment, and minor flags may only call for awareness.
Context around a specific patient determines real-world impact. Glipizide has 8 total documented interactions on file in this dataset, and Colesevelam has 15. Each additional medication compounds the interaction surface, which is why pharmacists run full-profile checks rather than evaluating one pair at a time. FDA-derived guidance for this pair is: Take your glipizide at least 4 hours before you take colesevelam. Timing of doses, renal and hepatic function, age, and other concurrent prescriptions all shape whether a labeled interaction matters clinically.
An interaction flag is not a verdict. A large share of labeled interactions are managed routinely in clinical practice, the fix may be as simple as spacing doses or adding a monitoring test. Others require the prescriber to choose a different medication entirely. This page surfaces FDA-sourced labeling and openFDA data for educational purposes only; it is not medical advice and cannot account for your full clinical picture. Never start, stop, or adjust either Glipizide or Colesevelam based on a web page, speak with your prescriber or pharmacist before making any change.
Sources: FDA Drug Labels (SPL) via openFDA (2026). This is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider about drug interactions.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.