Monotherapy for the treatment of dyslipidemias is commonly insufficient to achieve all lipid targets recommended by current guidelines. Therefore, the use of combined treatment has emerged as a new option in many cases in the last few years. A review of 36 studies in which the combination of statins with fibrates was used revealed 29 cases of rhabdomyolysis with a prevalence of 0,12% in the risk of myopathy. Combination of a statin with genfibrozil appeared to cause more rhabdomyolysis than with newest fibrates (especially when compared with fenofibrate or bezafibrate). Advanced age, diabetes, females, concomitant medications, renal insufficiency, excess in alcohol intake, exercises, trauma and surgery were all associated with higher rates of adverse effects.

Fibrates are drugs commonly used in hypertriglyceridemias. After their absorption, fibrates are metabolized by the liver, using P450 isoenzymes not shared by statins. However, for some fibrates, such as genfibrozil, an interaction with statins can occur during their liver glucuronidation, or by displacement of free fraction of statins linked to proteins in plasma. Plasma half-life is variable among fibrates (2-80 h). Recently it has been shown that fibrates produce plasma lipid changes mainly by stimulating peroxisome-proliferation activation receptors alpha. Through this action, there is an increase in the transcription of some genes related to lipid metabolism, such as LLP, APOAI, APOAII, ABCA-1, as well as decrease in the expression of APOCIII, and many other actions.