Loratadine chemical structure
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Loratadine

Loratadine is a drug used to treat allergies. It is marketed by Schering-Plough under several trade names such as Claritin®, Clarityn® or Claratyne® depending on the market, and by Wyeth as Alavert. It is also available as a generic. Its active metabolite, desloratadine, is also on the market, though loratadine itself is the only drug of its class available over the counter (at least in the US and UK) as of 2005. more...

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It is sometimes combined with pseudoephedrine to add a decongestant aspect to the treatment, making it somewhat useful for colds as well as allergies.

Available forms

Loratadine is available as tablets and oral suspension, and also in combination with pseudoephedrine. Also available are quick-dissolving tablets, which are advertised as being faster to get into one's system but which require special handling to avoid degrading in the package.

Mechanism of action

Loratadine is a tricyclic antihistamine, which has a selective and peripheral H1-antagonist action. It has a long-lasting effect and does not cause drowsiness because it does not readily enter the central nervous system.

Pharmacokinetics

Loratadine is rapidly absorbed from the gastro-intestinal tract and it has rapid first-pass hepatic metabolism. Loratadine is almost totally bound to plasma proteins. Its metabolite, desloratadine (descarboethoxyloratadine), is also active, but binds to plasma proteins only moderately. The half-life of loratadine is on average 8 hours, and its metabolites 28 hours. About 40% is excreted as conjugated metabolites into the urine and similar amount into the feces. Traces of unmetabolised loratadine can be found in the urine.

Recommended dosage

  • Adults and children 15+ years: 10mg once every 24 hours.
  • Children 2-14 years:
    • Bodyweight above 30kg: 10mg once every 24 hours.
    • Bodyweight below 30kg: 5mg once every 24 hours.

(From product packaging for Clarityn tablets.)

Side-effects

Most common side-effects are fatigue, drowsiness, dry mouth, headache, and gastrointestinal disturbances.

Loratadine vs. desloratadine

A November 2003 article published in the journal American Family Physician about the safety, tolerability, effectiveness, price, and simplicity of desloratadine concluded the following:

Desloratadine is similar in effectiveness to fexofenadine and would be expected to produce results similar to loratadine and other nonsedating antihistamines.Thus Desloratidine is of faster onset of action than Loratidine as the Loratidine is activated in the liver into Desloratidine (which was introduced into the american market under the name Aerius by Schering Plough corporation). However, it may be an option for patients whose medical insurance no longer covers loratadine if the co-pay is less than the cost of the over-the-counter product.

External links and references

  • Desloratadine for Allergic Rhinitis, a November 2003 article from American Family Physician
  • Packaging directions in PDF Format. Product Packaging for Claritin 24 hour tablets. URL accessed on January 3, 2005.


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OTC loratadine lifts allergy relief sales
From Drug Store News, 5/17/04 by Michael Johnsen

Judging from the sheer dollars generated by sales of OTC loratadine products last year, there seem to be quite a lot of people willing to part with $20 every month for allergy relief. Indeed, between Claritin and Alavert, almost $190 million in incremental dollars were added to drug stores last year. And that doesn't even include the $55.7 million incremental lift provided by private label allergy products--the majority of which has been attributed to private label loratadine.

And though loratadine sales may have prevented Pfizer from significantly growing its Benadryl business, the argument really cannot be made that the allergy leader was cannibalized by loratadine. The switch of loratadine truly grew the category, rather than merely shift the dollars around from one brand to another.

However, the loratadine OTC starburst may have come at a price for drug store operators. With the loratadine switch, third party payers moved prescription loratadine users to non-preferred formularies, which in effect provides a financial incentive for consumers to self treat. The question is, Have pharmacy retailers been able to recoup in gross margin at the front end what they may have lost in total dollars at the pharmacy counter? And did they lose any of those customers to other channels?

COPYRIGHT 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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