Fibrates

Fibrates
Drug class
Fenofibrate, one of the most popular fibrates
Class identifiers
Use	hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolaemia
ATC code	C10AB
Biological target	PPAR
Clinical data
WebMD	MedicineNet
External links
MeSH	D058607

In pharmacology, the fibrates are a class of amphipathic carboxylic acids. They are used for a range of metabolic disorders, mainly hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and are therefore hypolipidemic agents.

Aluminium clofibrate

Bezafibrate

Ciprofibrate

Choline fenofibrate

Clinofibrate

Clofibrate

Clofibride

Fenofibrate

Gemfibrozil

Ronifibrate

Simfibrate

Fibrates are used in accessory therapy in many forms of hypercholesterolemia, usually in combination with statins. Clinical trials do support their use as monotherapy agents. Fibrates reduce the number of non-fatal heart attacks, but do not improve all-cause mortality and are therefore indicated only in those not tolerant to statins.

Although less effective in lowering LDL levels, the ability of fibrates to increase HDL and lower triglyceride levels seems to reduce insulin resistance when the dyslipidemia is associated with other features of the metabolic syndrome (hypertension and diabetes mellitus type 2). They are therefore used in many hyperlipidemias. Due to a rare paradoxical decrease in HDL-C seen in some patients on fenofibrate, as per US FDA label change, it is recommended that the HDL-C levels be checked within the first few months after initiation of fibrate therapy. If a severely depressed HDL-C level is detected, fibrate therapy should be withdrawn, and the HDL-C level monitored until it has returned to baseline. Medwatch