COPAXONE® is a prescription medicine that is used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), to include clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting disease, and active secondary progressive disease, in adults.
Do not use COPAXONE® if you are allergic to glatiramer acetate or mannitol.
Serious side effects may happen right after or within minutes after you inject COPAXONE® at any time during your course of treatment. Call your doctor right away if you have any of these immediate post-injection reaction symptoms including: redness to your cheeks or other parts of the body (flushing); chest pain; fast heart beat; anxiety; breathing problems or tightness in your throat; or swelling, rash, hives, or itching. If you have symptoms of an immediate post-injection reaction, do not give yourself more injections until a doctor tells you to.
You can have chest pain as part of an immediate post-injection reaction or by itself. This type of chest pain usually lasts a few minutes and can begin around 1 month after you start using COPAXONE® . Call your doctor right away if you have chest pain while using COPAXONE® .
Damage to the fatty tissue just under your skin’s surface (lipoatrophy) and, rarely, death of your skin tissue (necrosis) can happen when you use COPAXONE® . Damage to the fatty tissue under your skin can cause a “dent” at the injection site that may not go away. You can reduce your chance of developing these problems by following your doctor’s instructions for how to use COPAXONE® and choosing a different injection area each time you use COPAXONE® .
Liver problems, including liver failure, can occur with COPAXONE® . Call your healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms, such as nausea, loss of appetite, tiredness, dark colored urine and pale stools, yellowing of your skin or the white part of your eye, bleeding more easily than normal, confusion, or sleepiness.
The most common side effects of COPAXONE® include redness, pain, swelling, itching, or a lump at the injection site; rash; shortness of breath; flushing; and chest pain.
Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. These are not all the possible side effects of COPAXONE® . For more information, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects.
You are encouraged to report side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch 1-800-FDA-1088 1-800-FDA-1088 .
Please read the Patient Information in the full Prescribing Information .
