Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters
Omega-3-acid ethyl esters is a prescription omega-3 fatty acid used alongside diet to lower severely elevated triglycerides (fats in the blood) in adults.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 30 clinical label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
📖 Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Omega-3-acid ethyl esters is a prescription medication approved to reduce triglyceride levels in adults with severely elevated triglycerides — used alongside, not instead of, a triglyceride-lowering diet.
- Lovaza (omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules) is indicated as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglyceride levels in adult patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia (triglycerides of 500 mg/dL or higher).
- Omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules (generic) are indicated for the same use: reducing severely elevated triglyceride levels in adults, alongside dietary management.
- This medication has not been shown to reduce the risk of pancreatitis or cardiovascular death and is not approved to treat atrial fibrillation or flutter.
⚙️How it works▾
Omega-3-acid ethyl esters contains EPA and DHA — two omega-3 fatty acids derived from fish oil. The exact way it lowers triglycerides isn't fully understood, but EPA and DHA appear to reduce triglyceride production in the liver, partly because they are poor building blocks for the enzymes that make triglycerides, and partly because they block a process called esterification that the liver uses to assemble fats. The medication may also increase the activity of lipoprotein lipase — an enzyme that breaks down triglycerides in the blood — and boost fat-burning pathways in the liver.
💊How it's taken▾
Omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules are taken by mouth with meals. The total daily dose may be taken all at once or divided into two doses taken twice a day. Capsules must be swallowed whole — never break, crush, dissolve, or chew them.
- Take with food to help with absorption and reduce stomach upset.
- Continue following your lipid-lowering diet throughout treatment.
- Follow your prescriber's instructions exactly — do not adjust the dose on your own.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
The most commonly reported side effects in clinical trials were:
- Burping (eructation) — the most frequently reported complaint
- Upset stomach (dyspepsia)
- Taste changes or unpleasant taste (taste perversion)
Contact your doctor promptly if you notice signs of an allergic reaction (hives, swelling, difficulty breathing), irregular heartbeat, unusual bruising or bleeding, or any symptoms suggesting liver problems such as yellowing of the skin or eyes.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Atrial fibrillation risk: There is a possible association between this medication and more frequent recurrences of symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) or flutter in people who already have paroxysmal or persistent AF — especially in the first 2 to 3 months of therapy. This drug is not approved to treat AF or flutter.
- LDL cholesterol increase: In some patients, omega-3-acid ethyl esters can raise LDL cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol). Your doctor should monitor LDL levels periodically.
- Liver monitoring: In patients with liver problems, liver enzyme levels (ALT and AST) should be checked regularly during treatment.
- Fish/shellfish allergy: This medication comes from fish oil. If you have a known fish or shellfish allergy, use with caution and discuss the risk with your doctor.
- Bleeding risk: Omega-3 fatty acids may prolong bleeding time. This has not caused major bleeding events in studies, but extra monitoring is needed if you take blood thinners or antiplatelet medications.
🔀What it interacts with▾
There are two main interaction categories to be aware of with omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules:
- Blood thinners and antiplatelet drugs (e.g., warfarin, aspirin, clopidogrel): omega-3-acid ethyl esters may prolong bleeding time, so your doctor should monitor you more closely if you take these together.
- Triglyceride-raising medications (e.g., beta-blockers, thiazide diuretics, estrogens): these drugs can worsen high triglyceride levels. Your doctor may need to stop or switch them before starting omega-3-acid ethyl esters therapy.
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Allergy to omega-3 fatty acid products: Do not take this medication if you've had a serious allergic reaction (such as anaphylaxis) to omega-3-acid ethyl esters or any of its ingredients.
- Fish or shellfish allergy: Tell your doctor — this medication is derived from fish oil and should be used with caution.
- Liver disease: Liver enzymes will need to be monitored during treatment; tell your doctor about any history of liver problems.
- Atrial fibrillation or flutter: Let your doctor know if you have a history of paroxysmal or persistent AF — this medication may increase the frequency of episodes.
- Pregnancy: Human safety data are limited. Animal studies at very high doses showed some effects on fetal development. Discuss risks and benefits with your doctor.
- Breastfeeding: EPA and DHA are found in breast milk. The effects on a nursing infant are unknown; discuss with your doctor.
- Children: Safety and effectiveness have not been established in pediatric patients.
- Older adults (over 65): A limited number of older adults were studied; safety and efficacy appeared similar to younger patients.
- Kidney or liver impairment: This medication has not been formally studied in patients with kidney or liver disease; use with appropriate caution and monitoring.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
EPA and DHA from omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules are absorbed through the gut after oral dosing. Taking higher doses produces larger increases in EPA levels in the blood (a dose-dependent effect), though DHA levels rise less predictably. Age does not appear to affect how well the body absorbs EPA and DHA, but females tend to absorb more EPA into their blood cells than males — the significance of this is not yet known. Studies show that taking this medication alongside common statins (simvastatin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin) does not meaningfully change how those drugs behave in the body, and omega-3-acid ethyl esters are not expected to significantly interact with the liver's main drug-processing enzyme system (cytochrome P450).
📦How to store it▾
Store at 25°C (77°F); excursions permitted to 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F) . Do not freeze. Keep out of reach of children.
📄 Written from Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is this medication for — isn't fish oil something you can just buy at the store? ▾
Do I still need to follow a diet even though I'm taking this medication? ▾
What side effects should I expect, and when should I call my doctor? ▾
I take a blood thinner. Is it safe to take this along with it? ▾
Is it okay to take this medication if I'm pregnant or breastfeeding? ▾
How do I take the capsules — is there anything special I need to know? ▾
Is Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters available over the counter? ▾
When was Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters first available? ▾
Who makes Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters comes
Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters is available in 3 forms. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Capsule
How this form is used
- Lovaza capsules are used alongside diet to reduce severely elevated triglyceride levels in adults.
- Omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules are used alongside diet to reduce severely elevated triglyceride levels in adults.
- Lovaza capsules are taken by mouth with meals — either all at once or split into two doses daily.
- Lovaza capsules must be swallowed whole; do not break, crush, dissolve, or chew them.
- Omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules are taken by mouth with meals — either all at once or split into two doses daily.
- Omega-3-acid ethyl esters capsules must be swallowed whole; do not break, crush, dissolve, or chew them.
Other oral form
Oral solution
📊 Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters across the U.S. market
How Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
FDA-listed product records by dose form (tablet variants merged) — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters is used
A general measure of how commonly Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters ranks #275 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 83% of them.
Utilization by Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
omega-3 acid ethyl esters (USP) 1000 MG Oral Capsule
Summed across the 10 of 66 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 577208
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 10 of 66 listed Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Capsule | ||||
| 900 mg | Oral | A-S Medication Solutions × 2 listings | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g | Oral | A-S Medication Solutions × 9 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | American Health Packaging | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | American Health Packaging | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g | Oral | Apotex Corp. × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | AvKARE × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | AvPAK × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | Bionpharma Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | Bryant Ranch Prepack × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Bryant Ranch Prepack × 9 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Camber Pharmaceuticals, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | Chartwell RX, LLC × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Direct_Rx × 3 listings | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g | Oral | Epic Pharma, Llc × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Golden State Medical Supply, Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | KD Pharma USA, Inc. × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Lifestar Pharma LLC × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Major Pharmaceuticals × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | NCS HealthCare of KY, LLC dba Vangard Labs | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | Par Pharmaceutical Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | — | Patheon Softgels Inc | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | — | Patheon Softgels Inc. | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Procaps S A | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Puracap Laboratories Llc Dba Blu Pharmaceuticals × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | QPharma Inc | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g | Oral | Quality Care Products, LLC | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g | Oral | Remedyrepack Inc. × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 900 mg | Oral | Strides Pharma Science Limited × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Waylis Therapeutics LLC | NDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | Woodward Pharma Services LLC × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g | Oral | XLCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Oral solution | ||||
| 190 kg/190 kg | — | Huatai Biopharm Inc | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 💊Other oral form | ||||
| 1 kg/kg | — | BASF AS avd Sandefjord × 2 listings | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | K.D. Pharma Bexbach GmbH | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 84 of 84 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 84 Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 484348 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Capsule RxCUI 809886In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 1000 MGRxCUI 577208
Look up RxCUI 484348 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
…and 11 more on the FDA NDC directory.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 30 FDA-filed SPL label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
For canonical ingredient pages, bounded product-attributed indication and administration excerpts may be added to the AI evidence, and the generator is instructed to preserve available product, brand, route, and form qualifiers instead of treating one label as universal. Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Waylis Therapeutics LLC is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.