[3] In 2000, argatroban was licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prophylaxis or treatment of thrombosis in people with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).

In 2012, it was approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for anticoagulation in people with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia Type II (HIT) who require parenteral antithrombotic therapy.

[4] Argatroban is given intravenously and drug plasma concentrations reach steady state in 1–3 hours.

If warfarin is chosen as the long-term anticoagulant, this poses particular challenges due to the falsely elevated prothrombin time and INR caused by argatroban.

The combination of argatroban and warfarin may raise the INR to greater than 5.0 without a significant increased risk of bleeding complications.