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Stelara Interactions
Stelara may interfere with how the liver handles certain drugs (such as cyclosporine, theophylline, or warfarin). Other drug interactions can occur when Stelara is taken with "live" vaccinations, such as the chickenpox vaccine or the BCG vaccine. Extreme caution must be used with the BCG vaccine -- it should be avoided from one year before Stelara treatment until one year after treatment ends.
Stelara™ (ustekinumab) can potentially interact with a few other medications. Some of the medicines that may lead to Stelara drug interactions include:
- Cyclosporine (Gengraf®, Neoral®, Sandimmune®)
- "Live" vaccinations, including:
- Chickenpox vaccine (varicella vaccine)
- FluMist® (the nasal vaccine for influenza; the injected vaccine is not live)
- MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella vaccine)
- Polio vaccine
- Rotavirus vaccine
- Smallpox vaccine
- Yellow fever vaccine
- BCG vaccine (used in some countries for tuberculosis)
- Other immune-suppressing medications
- Theophylline (Uniphyl®, Theocron®, TheoCap®, Theo-24®, Elixophyllin®)
- Warfarin (Coumadin®, Jantoven®).
The following sections explain in detail the potentially negative interactions that can occur when Stelara is combined with any of the drugs listed above.
Cyclosporine
Stelara may indirectly affect how the liver handles cyclosporine. Therefore, your healthcare provider should monitor you closely and adjust your cyclosporine dosage as necessary. Your healthcare provider may find it useful to monitor the level of cyclosporine in your blood.
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD