Jantoven
® (
warfarin sodium) is a prescription anticoagulant medication. It is used to prevent and treat blood clots due to various causes. Jantoven is actually a generic version of another medication (
Coumadin®).
Who Makes This Medication?
Jantoven is made by Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc.
This medication is often called a "blood thinner," although it does not actually thin the blood.
Blood clotting is a complex process that involves many different substances in the body, known as clotting factors, and several different steps. Jantoven works to inhibit blood clotting by decreasing the formation of active forms of certain clotting factors.
Some clotting factors require vitamin K to be converted into their active forms. Although this reaction changes vitamin K into an unusable form, the body can recycle it back using an enzyme known as vitamin K epoxide reductase. Jantoven blocks this enzyme, inhibiting the recycling of vitamin K and, thereby, decreasing the formation of the active clotting factors.
It is important to understand that this medication does not "dissolve" or break down blood clots (only special "clot buster" medications that must be given in the hospital can do this). Rather, it prevents them from forming. When used to treat a blood clot, Jantoven keeps clot formation in check, allowing the body's natural processes to break it down.
