Eluxadoline
Eluxadoline is a prescription medicine that works on opioid receptors in the gut and is used to treat irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults.
🧬 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 1 clinical label set 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 →
📖 Eluxadoline: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Eluxadoline — 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▾
Eluxadoline is used to treat irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults.
- Viberzi (eluxadoline oral tablet) is FDA-approved for adults with IBS-D to reduce chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain associated with this condition
⚙️How it works▾
Eluxadoline targets opioid receptors located in the wall of the intestine. It activates mu and kappa opioid receptors, which helps slow intestinal contractions and reduce diarrhea, and blocks delta opioid receptors, which balances out these effects and helps reduce abdominal pain. Because it acts mainly in the gut rather than the brain, it delivers its benefits locally with minimal systemic (whole-body) opioid effects.
💊How it's taken▾
Viberzi tablets are taken by mouth twice a day with food. Taking the tablet with a meal is important — a high-fat meal can significantly reduce how much of the drug your body absorbs, so a regular, balanced meal is preferred. Your prescriber may recommend a lower dose if you have mild or moderate liver disease, kidney problems, or if you take certain other medications such as OATP1B1 inhibitors.
- Take each dose at roughly the same times each day
- If you miss a dose, skip it and take the next dose at your regular time — never double up
- Stop taking Viberzi and call your doctor right away if you develop severe constipation
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
The most common side effects of Viberzi include:
- Constipation (the most frequently reported reaction — about half of cases occur in the first two weeks)
- Nausea
- Abdominal (belly) pain
- Vomiting
- Dizziness
- Bloating or abdominal distention
- Fatigue
- Rash or skin reactions
- Upper respiratory tract infection or nasopharyngitis (cold-like symptoms)
More serious reactions — including pancreatitis, sphincter of Oddi spasm, severe constipation leading to bowel obstruction, and serious allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) — have been reported and require you to stop Viberzi immediately and seek medical care.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Pancreatitis and sphincter of Oddi spasm: These are the most dangerous risks. The sphincter of Oddi is a small muscular valve that controls the flow of bile and digestive enzymes. When it goes into spasm, it can cause severe pain and trigger pancreatitis. Fatal cases have been reported, almost exclusively in people without a gallbladder. Most serious events occurred within the first week of treatment. Stop Viberzi and seek emergency care if you develop sudden severe belly pain, especially if it radiates to the back or shoulder.
- Severe constipation: Can progress to bowel obstruction, intestinal perforation, or fecal impaction. Stop Viberzi and contact your healthcare provider immediately if constipation becomes severe.
- Serious allergic reactions: Including anaphylaxis (a severe, potentially life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction) with swollen face/throat, trouble breathing, and chest tightness. Can occur after the first dose. Stop Viberzi immediately and get emergency help.
- Liver disease: Viberzi is contraindicated in severe liver impairment and requires a dose reduction in mild or moderate liver impairment, as drug levels in the blood increase significantly.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Several medicines and substances can interact with eluxadoline in important ways:
- OATP1B1 inhibitors (including cyclosporine, gemfibrozil, certain HIV antiretrovirals like ritonavir and atazanavir, rifampin, and eltrombopag): These raise eluxadoline blood levels substantially — a lower Viberzi dose is required and your doctor should monitor you closely
- Rosuvastatin (cholesterol medicine): Viberzi increases rosuvastatin levels in the blood, which can raise the risk of muscle damage (myopathy or rhabdomyolysis) — use the lowest effective rosuvastatin dose
- Constipation-causing medicines (opioids, anticholinergics, alosetron): Using these with Viberzi increases the risk of severe constipation and bowel complications — avoid combining them; loperamide may be used occasionally for acute severe diarrhea episodes but not chronically
- Alcohol: Drinking too much — or drinking regularly — significantly raises the risk of acute pancreatitis; patients should avoid chronic or excessive alcohol use
- Oral contraceptives: No meaningful interaction — Viberzi does not affect birth control pill levels
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 take Viberzi if your gallbladder has been removed — serious and potentially fatal pancreatitis risk
- Do not take if you have known or suspected bile duct blockage, or sphincter of Oddi disease or dysfunction
- Do not take if you have a history of pancreatitis, structural pancreatic disease, or known pancreatic duct obstruction
- Do not take if you have a history of chronic or severe constipation, or bowel obstruction
- Do not take if you drink more than 3 alcoholic beverages a day, or have alcoholism or alcohol addiction
- Do not take if you have severe liver disease (Child-Pugh Class C)
- Liver disease (mild or moderate): A lower dose is required; your doctor will monitor you for side effects and for problems with mental alertness or physical coordination
- Kidney disease (moderate to severe, or end-stage not yet on dialysis): A lower dose is required, as the drug accumulates in the blood
- Older adults (65+): May be more likely to experience side effects, including serious ones — close monitoring is advised
- Pregnancy: No human studies exist; discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor
- Breastfeeding: It is unknown whether eluxadoline passes into human milk; the drug is present in rat milk — discuss with your doctor before breastfeeding
- Children: Safety and effectiveness have not been established in pediatric patients
🚑If you take too much▾
No cases of Viberzi overdose have been formally reported. If an overdose is suspected, the stomach may be emptied and supportive care provided. Because eluxadoline acts on opioid receptors, a reversal agent called naloxone (a mu-opioid antagonist) may be considered, though its shorter duration of action means repeated doses may be needed and the patient should be monitored closely for returning symptoms.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Eluxadoline works directly in the gut, where it activates opioid receptors to slow intestinal movement and reduce diarrhea, while also helping to ease abdominal pain. At doses far above the normal therapeutic range, eluxadoline does not cause meaningful changes to heart rhythm (specifically, it does not prolong the QT interval — a measure of electrical activity in the heart).
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
After swallowing a Viberzi tablet with food, the drug reaches peak blood levels in about 1.5 hours. Taking it with a very high-fat meal can reduce peak levels and overall exposure substantially, which is why consistent meal conditions matter. The drug has a relatively short half-life of roughly 4 to 6 hours and does not build up in the body with twice-daily dosing. It is eliminated primarily through the stool (over 82% excreted in feces), with less than 1% leaving through urine. People with liver or severe kidney impairment clear the drug much more slowly, leading to significantly higher blood levels — which is why dose adjustments are needed for those groups.
📦How to store it▾
Store VIBERZI tablets at 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F) with excursions permitted to 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F) .
📄 Written from Eluxadoline’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 Eluxadoline
23 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Eluxadoline 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 · 13
- 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 Eluxadoline — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly does Viberzi do for my IBS-D? ▾
Is it safe to take Viberzi if I've had my gallbladder out? ▾
What side effects should I actually expect, and which ones mean I need to stop right away? ▾
Can I drink alcohol while taking Viberzi? ▾
Are there any medications I should avoid while taking Viberzi? ▾
Is Viberzi safe during pregnancy or while breastfeeding? ▾
Is Eluxadoline available over the counter? ▾
Is Eluxadoline a controlled substance? ▾
When was Eluxadoline first available? ▾
Who makes Eluxadoline? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Eluxadoline’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 Eluxadoline comes
Eluxadoline 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.
Tablet
How this form is used
- Viberzi tablets are used to treat irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults
- Viberzi is for ongoing, twice-daily use — not as a one-time or as-needed treatment
- Viberzi tablets should be taken by mouth twice daily with food
- Viberzi should not be taken with a high-fat meal, as this can substantially reduce absorption
- If you miss a dose of Viberzi, take your next dose at the regular time — do not take two doses at once
- Viberzi should be stopped immediately if severe constipation develops, and a prescriber should be contacted
📊 Eluxadoline across the U.S. market
How Eluxadoline 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.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (4) — bulk drug substance sold to compounders/manufacturers and multi-item kits. These aren’t counted in the dose-form total above.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Eluxadoline is used
A general measure of how commonly Eluxadoline 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 Eluxadoline 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 Eluxadoline prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Eluxadoline ranks #987 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 38% of them.
Utilization by Eluxadoline 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.
eluxadoline 100 MG Oral Tablet Most dispensed
Summed across the 1 of 3 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1719764
eluxadoline 75 MG Oral Tablet
Summed across the 1 of 3 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1653786
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 Eluxadoline, 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 6 listed Eluxadoline NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Eluxadoline products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Eluxadoline — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Tablet | ||||
| 75 mg | Oral | Allergan, Inc. × 4 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 100 mg | Oral | Allergan, Inc. × 4 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 50 kg/50 kg | — | Aurobindo Pharma Limited | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Honour Lab Limited | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | MSN Life Sciences Private Limited | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Piramal Pharma Limited | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
Showing 12 of 12 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 12 Eluxadoline 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 Eluxadoline — 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 Eluxadoline 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 Eluxadoline 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 1653781 1 dose form · 2 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Tablet RxCUI 1653785In current FDA listings
Look up RxCUI 1653781 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 Eluxadoline 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
Eluxadoline belongs to the mu-Opioid Receptor 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 1 FDA-filed SPL label set 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.
For canonical ingredient pages, bounded product-attributed indication and administration excerpts may be added to the AI evidence, and the generator is instructed to preserve available product, brand, route, and form qualifiers instead of treating one label as universal. 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.