Lovastatin and Ketoconazole Interaction
Drug interaction information between Lovastatin and Ketoconazole.
Lovastatin and Ketoconazole have a documented moderate interaction in FDA labeling.
FDA drug labeling documents a moderate-severity interaction between Lovastatin and Ketoconazole. 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
Ketoconazole stops the body from breaking down lovastatin. This causes the medicine to build up in your blood, which can lead to serious muscle damage.
What To Do
Avoid taking these two medicines together. Your doctor may need to stop your lovastatin treatment while you are taking this antifungal medication.
FDA Label Information
Strong inhibitors of CYP3A4 (e.g., itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, clarithromycin, telithromycin, HIV protease inhibitors, boceprevir, telaprevir, nefazodone, erythromycin, and cobicistat-containing products), and grapefruit juice increase the risk of myopathy by reducing the elimination of lovastatin (see CONTRAINDICATIONS , WARNINGS , Myopathy/Rhabdomyolysis , and CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY , Pharmacokinetics ).
Lovastatin Also Interacts With
- Darunavir major
- Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir major
- Spironolactone moderate
- Verapamil moderate
- Cyclosporine moderate
Ketoconazole Also Interacts With
- Alfuzosin major
- Dronedarone major
- Ranolazine major
- Saxagliptin major
- Sildenafil major
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take Lovastatin and Ketoconazole together?
This is a moderate interaction. Avoid taking these two medicines together. Your doctor may need to stop your lovastatin treatment while you are taking this antifungal medication.
How serious is the interaction between Lovastatin and Ketoconazole?
This interaction is classified as "moderate" severity by the FDA. Moderate interactions may worsen your condition or change how your medications work.
Why do Lovastatin and Ketoconazole interact?
Ketoconazole stops the body from breaking down lovastatin. This causes the medicine to build up in your blood, which can lead to serious muscle damage.
Understanding the Lovastatin and Ketoconazole Interaction
FDA-approved prescribing information for these two drugs flags their combination as a moderate-severity interaction. Lovastatin belongs to the HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitor (Statin) class and Ketoconazole belongs to the Azole Antifungal class - two categories that can collide when co-prescribed. The mechanism described in FDA labeling is: Ketoconazole stops the body from breaking down lovastatin. 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. Lovastatin has 30 total documented interactions on file in this dataset, and Ketoconazole has 113. 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: Avoid taking these two medicines together. 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 Lovastatin or Ketoconazole 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.