This grade answers one narrow question: how strong is the public evidence and safety record behind this drug, and how clean is its money trail and court record? It is not a verdict on whether the drug is right for you.
Listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines: a global expert panel judged it among the medicines a health system should always have, on evidence of value, not marketing.
is a cardiac glycoside indicated for: Treatment of mild to moderate heart failure in adults. ( 1.1 ) Increasing myocardial contractility in pediatric patients with heart failure. ( 1.2 ) Control of resting ventricular rate in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation in adults. ( 1.3 ) 1.1 Heart Failure in Adults LANOXIN is indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate heart failure in adults. LANOXIN increases left ventricular ejection fraction and improves heart failure symptoms as evidenced by improved exercise capacity and decreased heart failure-related hospitalizations and emergency care, while having no effect on mortality. Where possible, LANOXIN should be used in combination with a diuretic and an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. 1.2 Heart Failure in Pediatric Patients LANOXIN increases myocardial contractility in pediatric patients with heart failure. 1.3 Atrial Fibrillation in Adults LANOXIN is indicated for the control of ventricular response rate in adult patients with chronic atrial fibrillation.
is contraindicated in patients with: Ventricular fibrillation [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 )] Known hypersensitivity to digoxin (reactions seen include unexplained rash, swelling of the mouth, lips or throat or a difficulty in breathing). A hypersensitivity reaction to other digitalis preparations usually constitutes a contraindication to digoxin. Ventricular fibrillation. ( 4 ) Known hypersensitivity to digoxin or other forms of digitalis. ( 4 )
Risk of rapid ventricular response leading to ventricular fibrillation in patients with AV accessory pathway. ( 5.1 ) Risk of advanced or complete heart block in patients with sinus node disease and AV block. ( 5.2 ) Digoxin toxicity: Indicated by nausea, vomiting, visual disturbances, and cardiac arrhythmias. Advanced age, low body weight, impaired renal function and electrolyte abnormalities predispose to toxicity. ( 5.3 ) Risk of ventricular arrhythmias during electrical cardioversion. ( 5.4 ) Not recommended in patients with acute myocardial infarction. ( 5.5 ) Avoid LANOXIN in patients with myocarditis. ( 5.6 ) 5.1 Ventricular Fibrillation in Patients With Accessory AV Pathway (Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome) Patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome who develop atrial fibrillation are at high risk of ventricular fibrillation. Treatment of these patients with digoxin leads to greater slowing of conduction in the atrioventricular node than in accessory pathways, and the risks of rapid ventricular response leading to ventricular fibrillation are thereby increased. 5.2 Sinus Bradycardia and Sino-atrial Block LANOXIN may cause severe sinus bradycardia or sinoatrial block partic...
The following adverse reactions are included in more detail in the Warnings and Precautions section of the label: Cardiac arrhythmias [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 , 5.2 )] Digoxin Toxicity [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.3 )] The overall incidence of adverse reactions with digoxin has been reported as 5-20%, with 15-20% of adverse events considered serious. Cardiac toxicity accounts for about one-half, gastrointestinal disturbances for about one-fourth, and CNS and other toxicity for about one-fourth of these adverse events. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Concordia Pharmaceuticals Inc. at 1-877-370-1142 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch . 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in clinical practice. In general, the adverse reactions of LANOXIN are dose-dependent and occur at doses higher than those needed to achieve a therapeutic effect. Hence, adverse reactions are less common when LANOXIN is use...
Source: FDA SPL label for LANOXIN (Aphena Pharma Solutions - Tennessee, LLC), effective 20190508. Full label on DailyMed.
These are counts of reports people filed, not rates of harm. Anyone can file one, and nobody checks whether the drug was the cause. Millions of doses are taken for every report sent, so the useful part is how this drug compares with the average across all drugs.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,911 | 3,437 | 2,448 | 1,872 | 2,317 | 2,195 | 2,114 | 937 |
3,257 reports blaming this drug for every million Medicare prescriptions filled, which is 1.2× the typical drug on this site. (5,149 reports in 2024–2026, against 1,580,892 Medicare fills in one year. This is the one number here that accounts for how many people take the drug.)
Source: the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Reports are voluntary and unverified. Drugs that are prescribed a lot, in the news, or in lawsuits attract more reports, so the percentages are compared with the whole database to correct for that partly, not fully.
| Date | Class | Firm | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03/2024 | Class III | Novitium Pharma LLC | Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications |
| 03/2024 | Class III | Novitium Pharma LLC | Cross Contamination with Other Products:(mycophenolate mofetil). |
Class I = reasonable probability of serious harm. Class II = temporary or reversible harm. Class III = unlikely to harm. Most generic recalls are manufacturing or labeling defects for one lot, not a verdict on the molecule.
Counts measure how much evidence exists and how transparent it is, not how big the benefit is. For that, ask your prescriber: if 100 people like me took this, how many would get better because of it, and how many would be harmed? (Doctors call these the "number needed to treat" and "number needed to harm.") It differs by condition and is the number drug ads leave out. Sources: PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov.
In 2024, drug companies reported $0 in payments to US physicians and hospitals tied to this drug across 0 transactions.
No pending federal MDL names this drug or its brands.
Not named in any federal pharmaceutical settlement of $100M or more on record.
Sources: CMS Open Payments (Sunshine Act); Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation pending docket list; DOJ settlements as tabulated on Wikipedia with links to the primary record. State-court and individual suits are not included.
| Product | Fills | $/fill |
|---|---|---|
| Digoxin | 1,579,920 | $23 |
| Lanoxin | 972 | $995 |
Same ATC pharmacological class, graded ones first, best grade at the top. Being in the same class does not make them interchangeable for your condition; it makes them worth asking about.