Alcaftadine Ophthalmic
Alcaftadine ophthalmic is an antihistamine eye drop used to prevent itching caused by allergic conjunctivitis (eye allergies).
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 5 clinical label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
📖 Alcaftadine Ophthalmic: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Alcaftadine Ophthalmic — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Alcaftadine ophthalmic solution is used to prevent eye itching caused by allergic conjunctivitis (eye allergies).
- Lastacaft eye drops are FDA-approved to prevent itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis in adults and children aged 2 years and older
⚙️How it works▾
Alcaftadine works in two ways at once. First, it blocks H1 histamine receptors — the targets on eye tissue that histamine activates to cause itching. Second, it slows histamine release from mast cells (immune cells that fire off during an allergic reaction), so less histamine reaches those receptors in the first place. It also reduces the movement and activation of eosinophils, white blood cells that amplify allergic inflammation in the eye.
💊How it's taken▾
Lastacaft eye drops are applied to the affected eye or eyes once daily. One drop per eye is the standard dose for adults and children 2 years of age and older. If you use other eye drops or ointments, space them at least 5 minutes apart. Children under 2 should only use this product under a doctor's guidance. Always follow your prescriber's instructions and the directions on your product label.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Most side effects with Lastacaft are mild and occur right at the time of instillation. Common ones include:
- Eye irritation, burning, or stinging when the drop goes in
- Eye redness
- Eye itching
- Runny nose or sore throat (nasopharyngitis)
- Headache
Less commonly, post-marketing reports have noted eye discharge, eyelid swelling, blurred vision, increased tearing, and hypersensitivity reactions such as facial swelling or skin rash. Drowsiness (somnolence) has also been reported. Contact your doctor if any of these occur or if your eye symptoms get worse.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Keep the dropper tip clean. Never let it touch your eyelids, surrounding skin, or any other surface — this prevents contamination of the solution and reduces the risk of eye infection. Keep the cap on tightly between uses.
- Contact lens precautions. Always remove contact lenses before using Lastacaft. The preservative benzalkonium chloride can be absorbed by soft lenses. Wait at least 10 minutes after instillation before reinserting lenses. Do not wear contacts if your eye is red, and do not use Lastacaft for contact lens-related irritation.
- Stop use and call your doctor if you experience eye pain, changes in vision, worsening eye redness, or itching that does not improve within 72 hours.
- Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, call Poison Control immediately.
🔀What it interacts with▾
No specific drug interactions are described in the Lastacaft prescribing information. However, if you use multiple eye drops or eye medications, keep the following in mind:
- Wait at least 5 minutes between applying Lastacaft and any other ophthalmic (eye) product to avoid diluting either medication
- Soft contact lenses can absorb benzalkonium chloride (the preservative in Lastacaft) — always remove lenses before use and wait 10 minutes before reinserting
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Allergy to ingredients: Do not use Lastacaft if you are sensitive or allergic to alcaftadine or any component of the product
- Pregnancy: There are no well-controlled studies in pregnant women; use only if your doctor decides the benefit outweighs the risk
- Breastfeeding: It is not known whether alcaftadine passes into breast milk; discuss with your doctor before using
- Children under 2: Safety and effectiveness have not been established in this age group — consult a doctor before use
- Older adults: No meaningful differences in safety or effectiveness have been observed compared to younger adults
- Contact lens wearers: Remove lenses before each use; do not use this product to treat contact lens-related irritation
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
After Lastacaft drops are placed in both eyes, a small amount of alcaftadine is absorbed into the bloodstream — peak blood levels are very low and occur within about 15 minutes. Alcaftadine is converted in the body to an active metabolite (a breakdown product that also works against histamine) through enzymes that are not part of the CYP450 system, meaning it is unlikely to interfere with the metabolism of most other drugs.
The active metabolite peaks in the blood about 1 hour after dosing and clears within 12 hours. Its elimination half-life (the time it takes for half of it to leave the body) is roughly 2 hours, and it is primarily excreted unchanged in the urine. There is no build-up in the body with daily dosing.
📦How to store it▾
store between 15° to 25°C (59° to 77°F)
📄 Written from Alcaftadine Ophthalmic’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Alcaftadine Ophthalmic — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly does Lastacaft do — will it stop my eye allergies completely? ▾
Can I put my contact lenses back in right after using these drops? ▾
My eyes still feel irritated right after I put in the drops. Is that normal? ▾
How do I use the drops correctly so they actually work? ▾
Is it safe to use Lastacaft if I'm pregnant or breastfeeding? ▾
My child is 18 months old — can they use these drops? ▾
Is Alcaftadine Ophthalmic available over the counter? ▾
When was Alcaftadine Ophthalmic first available? ▾
Who makes Alcaftadine Ophthalmic? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Alcaftadine Ophthalmic’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Alcaftadine Ophthalmic comes
Alcaftadine Ophthalmic is available in 1 form. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Eye drops
How this form is used
- Lastacaft is used to prevent eye itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis in adults and children 2 years of age and older
- Lastacaft: instill one drop into the affected eye(s) once daily
- Lastacaft: if using other eye products at the same time, wait at least 5 minutes between each product
- Lastacaft: remove contact lenses before instilling the drops; wait at least 10 minutes before reinserting lenses
- Lastacaft: do not touch the dropper tip to your eyelids, skin, or any surface; replace the cap after each use
📊 Alcaftadine Ophthalmic across the U.S. market
How Alcaftadine Ophthalmic appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Alcaftadine Ophthalmic is used
A general measure of how commonly Alcaftadine Ophthalmic is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Alcaftadine Ophthalmic is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Alcaftadine Ophthalmic prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Alcaftadine Ophthalmic ranks #1,222 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 23% of them.
Utilization by Alcaftadine Ophthalmic product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
alcaftadine 2.5 MG/ML Ophthalmic Solution
Summed across the 2 of 12 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1000085
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Alcaftadine Ophthalmic, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 2 of 12 listed Alcaftadine Ophthalmic NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Alcaftadine Ophthalmic products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Alcaftadine Ophthalmic — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Eye drops | ||||
| 2.5 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Alembic Pharmaceuticals Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 2.5 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Allergan, Inc. × 5 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 2.5 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Aurohealth LLC | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 2.5 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Gland Pharma Limited | ANDA | View NDC → |
Showing 8 of 8 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 8 Alcaftadine Ophthalmic NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Alcaftadine Ophthalmic — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Alcaftadine Ophthalmic in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Alcaftadine Ophthalmic went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 1000082 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Ophthalmic Solution RxCUI 1000084In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 2.5 MG/MLRxCUI 1000085
Look up RxCUI 1000082 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Alcaftadine Ophthalmic is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
RxNorm drug class
Alcaftadine Ophthalmic belongs to the Histamine-1 Receptor Antagonist class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 5 FDA-filed SPL label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Allergan, Inc. is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.