Mirabegron for overactive bladder

Jamie Falk; Justin Lane; Taehoon Kim; Karenn Chan

doi:10.46747/cfp.7203184

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RE: Mirabegron for overactive bladder
Joel Lexchin

Published on: 21 March 2026

Published on: (21 March 2026)
Page navigation anchor for RE: Mirabegron for overactive bladder
RE: Mirabegron for overactive bladder
Joel Lexchin, Emergency physician (retired), School of Health Policy and Management, York University
The review of mirabegron for overactive bladder (1) could be interpreted as mildly supportive of its use over anticholinergics based on a modest decrease in dry mouth and tachycardia side effects. Other evaluations are not as positive. The independent German institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care concluded that “patients who were taking mirabegron did not assess their quality of life differently from the ones who used tolterodine” (2). The French drug bulletin Prescrire International’s review of mirabegron view was that “It exposes to serious adverse effects, including cardiac conduction disorders, and rare urinary and cutaneous reactions. In practice when a drug is considered, better known antimuscarinics should be preferred.”

References

1. Falk J, Lane J, Kim T, Chan K. Mirabegron for overactive bladder. Canadian Family Physician 2026;72(3):184. doi.org/10.46747/cfp.7203184.
2. Mirabegron - Benefit assessment according to §35a Social Code Book V (dossier assessment). IQWiG. Available at: https://www.iqwig.de/en/presse/press-releases/press-releases-detailpage_.... Accessed March 21, 2026
3. Prescrire Editorial Staff. Mirabegron: poorly effective in urge urinary incontinence. Prescrire International 2016;25(167):8.

Competing Interests: Between 2022-2025, Joel Lexchin received payments for writing a brief for a legal firm on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for opioids, for being on a panel about pharmacare and for co-writing an article for a peer-reviewed medical journal on semaglutide. He is a member of the Board of the Canadian Health Coalition. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written. He has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in the past.