Apraclonidine Ophthalmic
Apraclonidine ophthalmic solution is an eye drop used to lower elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with glaucoma who need extra pressure control beyond their current medications.
🧬 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 3 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 →
📖 Apraclonidine Ophthalmic: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Apraclonidine 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▾
Apraclonidine ophthalmic solution is used to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) in the eye. Here are the supported uses based on the available product evidence:
- Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% is approved as short-term add-on (adjunctive) therapy for patients with glaucoma who are already on maximally tolerated medical therapy but still need further IOP reduction.
- Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% may be used to delay the need for surgery (such as laser trabeculoplasty or trabeculectomy) in patients with uncontrolled IOP.
- Note: Adding Apraclonidine 0.5% to a regimen that already includes two aqueous suppressants (such as a beta-blocker plus a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor) may not provide meaningful additional benefit, since it works by the same mechanism.
⚙️How it works▾
Apraclonidine is an alpha-2 adrenergic agonist — it activates specific receptors in the eye that signal the eye to produce less aqueous humor (the fluid that circulates inside the eye). Less fluid means less pressure building up. The effect starts within about one hour and peaks around three hours after the drops are placed in the eye. It works primarily by reducing fluid production rather than increasing fluid drainage.
In some patients, the pressure-lowering effect fades over time — a phenomenon called tachyphylaxis. This loss of effect varies from person to person and can happen unpredictably, which is why close monitoring is important during treatment.
💊How it's taken▾
Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% is instilled as one to two drops into the affected eye(s) three times a day. If you use other eye drop medications alongside it, wait about 5 minutes between each drop to prevent one from washing the other away before it can work.
- For eye (topical ophthalmic) use only — never inject or swallow.
- Follow your prescriber's exact instructions; your doctor will adjust or stop treatment based on how your eye pressure responds.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Most side effects affect the eye itself and are the most common reason people stop treatment. Here's what to expect:
- Eye discomfort or irritation
- Redness of the eye (hyperemia)
- Itching (pruritus) — one of the most common reasons for stopping
- Tearing
- Blurred vision
- Eyelid swelling (lid edema)
- Dry eye or foreign body sensation
- Dry mouth — reported in about 10% of patients
Less common but more serious reactions include slow heartbeat (bradycardia), irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia), chest pain, significant dizziness, and allergic-type reactions affecting the eye or skin. Contact your doctor right away if any of these occur.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Serious risk in young children: Apraclonidine eye drops have caused cardiovascular collapse requiring breathing support, apnea (stopped breathing), and dangerously low blood pressure in children 6 years and younger, including newborns. Extreme caution and close clinical monitoring are required if used in this age group.
- Systemic absorption: Even though it's an eye drop, apraclonidine is absorbed into the bloodstream and can lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. People taking heart or blood pressure medications need close monitoring.
- Loss of effect over time: The pressure-lowering benefit can fade within a month or less in some patients (tachyphylaxis). Your doctor will watch for this.
- Allergic reactions: Eye redness, itching, and swelling are relatively common and were the main reason people stopped treatment in clinical trials. Stop use and contact your doctor if these occur.
- For eye use only: Not for injection into the eye. Not for swallowing.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Apraclonidine can interact with several medications. Let your doctor and pharmacist know everything you take, including eye drops:
- MAO inhibitors (a type of antidepressant, e.g., phenelzine, tranylcypromine) — contraindicated; do not use together.
- Tricyclic antidepressants (e.g., amitriptyline, nortriptyline) — may reduce apraclonidine's pressure-lowering effect and can affect how the body handles certain chemical messengers.
- CNS depressants (alcohol, barbiturates, opiates, sedatives, anesthetics) — may add to sedation and blood pressure lowering effects.
- Beta-blockers (eye drops or pills), antihypertensives, and cardiac glycosides — may cause an added drop in blood pressure or heart rate; pulse and blood pressure should be monitored frequently.
- Neuroleptic (antipsychotic) medications — combined with clonidine-type drugs, may cause an added drop in blood pressure.
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▾
- Do not use if you are allergic to apraclonidine, clonidine, or any component of the drops.
- Do not use if you currently take MAO inhibitor medications.
- Tell your doctor about all heart or blood pressure medications you take — including eye drops.
- Tell your doctor about all antidepressants you take, especially tricyclic antidepressants.
- Use with extreme caution in children 6 years of age and younger, including newborns — serious and life-threatening reactions have been reported.
- Tell your doctor about all other glaucoma eye drops you use, as timing of drops matters.
🚑If you take too much▾
If apraclonidine eye drops are accidentally swallowed, they can cause slow heartbeat (bradycardia), drowsiness, and low body temperature (hypothermia). Seek emergency medical help immediately if this happens. Treatment focuses on supportive care and keeping the airway open; hemodialysis removes very little of the drug from the body and is not considered an effective treatment.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Apraclonidine lowers intraocular pressure by reducing the production of aqueous humor — the fluid that flows through the eye. It achieves this by stimulating alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, which signal the eye to produce less fluid. The drop in pressure begins within about one hour and reaches its peak effect around three hours after the drops are applied. Because it is a vasoconstrictor (it narrows blood vessels), it has been shown to reduce blood flow to the front part of the eye in animal studies, though effects on the back of the eye were not seen.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Although apraclonidine is applied to the eye surface, it is absorbed into the bloodstream. In studies of healthy volunteers using one drop three times a day in both eyes for 10 days, blood levels were low but measurable. The half-life — the time it takes the body to clear half the drug — is approximately 8 hours. Because of this systemic absorption, effects on heart rate and blood pressure are possible even with eye drop use.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20° to 25°C (68° to 77°F) . Protect from freezing and light.
📄 Written from Apraclonidine 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 →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Apraclonidine Ophthalmic
18 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Apraclonidine Ophthalmic in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 1
- Moderate · 8
- Minor · 9
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Apraclonidine Ophthalmic — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What is apraclonidine eye drops actually used for? ▾
How do I use the drops, and what if I use other eye drops too? ▾
What side effects should I expect, and which ones mean I should call my doctor? ▾
Will these drops keep working long term? ▾
Are there any medications I absolutely cannot take with these eye drops? ▾
Is it safe to use these drops in children? ▾
Is Apraclonidine Ophthalmic available over the counter? ▾
When was Apraclonidine Ophthalmic first available? ▾
Who makes Apraclonidine Ophthalmic? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine Ophthalmic comes
Apraclonidine 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
- Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% is used as short-term add-on therapy to lower intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients who are already on maximum tolerated medical therapy
- Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% may be used to help delay the need for eye surgery in patients with uncontrolled intraocular pressure
- Apraclonidine Ophthalmic Solution 0.5%: instill one to two drops into the affected eye(s) three times daily
- If using other eye drop medications, wait approximately 5 minutes between each drop to avoid washing out the previous dose
- For topical (eye surface) use only — do not inject into the eye and do not swallow
- Follow your prescriber's instructions closely; your doctor will monitor your eye pressure regularly during treatment
📊 Apraclonidine Ophthalmic across the U.S. market
How Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine Ophthalmic is used
A general measure of how commonly Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine Ophthalmic prescribed? Of the 1,597 medications we measure, Apraclonidine Ophthalmic ranks #1,350 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 15% of them.
Utilization by Apraclonidine 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.
apraclonidine 5 MG/ML Ophthalmic Solution
Summed across the 1 of 4 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 308345
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 Apraclonidine 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 1 of 4 listed Apraclonidine Ophthalmic NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Apraclonidine Ophthalmic products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Apraclonidine 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 | ||||
| 5 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Akorn | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Alcon Laboratories, Inc. | NDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 10 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Harrow Eye, LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 5.75 mg/mL | Ophthalmic | Sandoz Inc × 2 listings | NDA AUTHORIZED GENERIC | View NDC → |
Showing 6 of 6 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 6 Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine 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 Apraclonidine 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 14845 1 dose form · 2 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Ophthalmic Solution RxCUI 379111In current FDA listings
Look up RxCUI 14845 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 Apraclonidine 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
Apraclonidine Ophthalmic belongs to the alpha-Adrenergic Agonist 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 3 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. Sandoz 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.