Nizatidine
Nizatidine is an H2 blocker used to treat duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, and acid reflux (GERD), including erosive esophagitis.
🧬 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 4 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 →
📖 Nizatidine: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Nizatidine — 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▾
Nizatidine is used to treat several conditions linked to excess stomach acid. Supported uses across nizatidine capsules and nizatidine oral solution include:
- Active duodenal ulcer (ulcer in the upper part of the small intestine) — treatment for up to 8 weeks
- Maintenance therapy after a healed duodenal ulcer — to prevent it from returning
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), including erosive and ulcerative esophagitis (acid-related damage to the esophagus) and associated heartburn — up to 12 weeks
- Active benign gastric ulcer (stomach ulcer not caused by cancer) — up to 8 weeks
- Nizatidine oral solution is additionally approved for adolescents 12 years and older for GERD and erosive esophagitis
⚙️How it works▾
Nizatidine works by blocking histamine H2 receptors — specialized docking sites on the acid-producing cells in your stomach lining. Histamine normally binds to these receptors and triggers a flood of stomach acid. By blocking them, nizatidine significantly cuts acid production for up to 12 hours, reducing the acidic environment that irritates ulcers and the esophagus and giving damaged tissue time to heal.
Importantly, nizatidine does not interfere with most other medications because it does not significantly affect the liver enzyme system that breaks down many drugs.
💊How it's taken▾
Nizatidine comes as an oral capsule and an oral liquid solution, both taken by mouth. Depending on what is being treated, it is typically taken once at bedtime or twice a day (morning and evening). It can be taken with or without food. Do not mix nizatidine capsules into apple juice — this significantly reduces how much of the drug is absorbed.
- For active ulcers and GERD, treatment is usually continued for several weeks as directed
- If you have kidney disease, your dose will likely be adjusted — do not adjust it on your own
- If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember, but skip it if it's almost time for your next dose — never double up
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Most people tolerate nizatidine well. Common side effects reported in clinical trials include:
- Headache
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Runny nose or nasal symptoms
- Itching or skin rash
- Drowsiness
- Muscle aches
- Dry mouth
More serious but rare reactions include liver injury (watch for yellowing skin or eyes, dark urine), significant drops in blood platelet counts (unusual bruising or bleeding), and severe allergic reactions including throat swelling or difficulty breathing. Get medical help right away if any of these occur.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Kidney disease: Nizatidine is cleared almost entirely by the kidneys. If your kidneys aren't working well, the drug can build up to harmful levels. A dose reduction is required — your prescriber must know your kidney status before you start.
- Liver injury: Rare cases of hepatitis and jaundice have been reported. Liver enzyme abnormalities are generally reversible when nizatidine is stopped, but watch for warning signs like yellowing of the skin or eyes.
- Low platelet counts: Fatal thrombocytopenia (dangerously low platelet levels leading to severe bleeding risk) has been reported rarely. Report any unusual bruising or bleeding to your doctor promptly.
- Allergic reactions: Rare but serious allergic responses — including anaphylaxis (a life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction), throat swelling, and bronchospasm (airway tightening) — have been reported. Seek emergency help immediately if this occurs.
- Stomach cancer: Before treating a stomach ulcer with nizatidine, your doctor should rule out cancer, since the symptoms can mimic malignant disease.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Nizatidine has relatively few drug interactions, but there are a couple worth knowing:
- High-dose aspirin: Taking very high doses of aspirin alongside nizatidine can raise aspirin levels in your blood — tell your doctor if aspirin is part of your regimen
- Aluminum/magnesium antacids with simethicone: These can slightly reduce nizatidine absorption — spacing them apart from nizatidine is advisable
- No significant interaction has been found with theophylline, warfarin, phenytoin, lorazepam, lidocaine, or chlordiazepoxide
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▾
- Tell your doctor if you have kidney disease — your dose must be adjusted based on how well your kidneys work
- Do not take nizatidine if you have ever had an allergic reaction to it or to any other H2 blocker (such as ranitidine, famotidine, or cimetidine) — cross-sensitivity within this drug class has been observed
- Nizatidine oral solution is approved for patients 12 years and older; use in younger children should be discussed with a pediatric specialist
- Tell your prescriber if you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or breastfeeding
- Share a full list of all your medications — prescription, over-the-counter, and supplements — with your pharmacist or doctor before starting
🚑If you take too much▾
Overdoses of nizatidine are rare. Large amounts may produce cholinergic-type effects — symptoms like excessive tearing, drooling, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. If an overdose is suspected, contact your local Poison Control Center immediately for guidance. Supportive care is the main treatment, and hemodialysis is not expected to remove nizatidine efficiently due to how the drug distributes in the body.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Nizatidine significantly reduces stomach acid secretion at night (for up to 12 hours) and also suppresses acid triggered by food, caffeine, and other stimulants. It does not affect the digestive enzyme pepsin directly, though total pepsin output falls because less fluid is secreted overall. Nizatidine has no meaningful effect on hormone levels — including testosterone, estrogen, and growth hormone — and has no antiandrogenic (testosterone-blocking) activity.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Nizatidine is well absorbed when taken by mouth, with more than 70% of the dose reaching the bloodstream. Peak blood levels occur within 30 minutes to 3 hours of taking a dose. The drug has a short elimination half-life of 1 to 2 hours, meaning it clears from the body relatively quickly — so it doesn't accumulate in people with normal kidney function. More than 90% of a dose is excreted in the urine within 12 hours, mostly as unchanged drug. In people with moderate to severe kidney impairment, the drug stays in the body much longer, which is why a dose reduction is needed.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20°-25°C (68°-77°F) in a tightly closed light resistant container.
📄 Written from Nizatidine’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 Nizatidine
31 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Nizatidine 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 · 9
- Minor · 21
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.
Nutrient depletion considerations
Nizatidine has been associated with lower levels of 6 nutrients in the clinical literature. This does not mean a deficiency will occur — it means these may be worth discussing with your pharmacist or healthcare provider, especially with long-term use.
- Higher significance · 4
- Moderate · 1
- Unrated · 1
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — not medical advice. 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 Nizatidine — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is nizatidine used for? ▾
How does nizatidine actually work? ▾
Can I take nizatidine with food, or does it have to be on an empty stomach? ▾
What side effects should I actually watch out for? ▾
I have kidney problems — is this safe for me? ▾
Can I take antacids while I'm on nizatidine? ▾
Is Nizatidine available over the counter? ▾
When was Nizatidine first available? ▾
Who makes Nizatidine? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Nizatidine’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 Nizatidine comes
Nizatidine is available in 2 forms. 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.
Capsule
How this form is used
- Nizatidine capsules are used to treat active duodenal ulcers for up to 8 weeks
- Nizatidine capsules are used for maintenance therapy to prevent duodenal ulcer recurrence after healing
- Nizatidine capsules are used to treat GERD, including erosive and ulcerative esophagitis, for up to 12 weeks
- Nizatidine capsules are used to treat active benign gastric ulcers for up to 8 weeks
- Nizatidine capsules are taken by mouth, once at bedtime or twice daily depending on the condition — follow your prescriber's instructions
- Nizatidine capsules can be taken with or without food
- Do not mix or dissolve Nizatidine capsules in apple juice — this significantly reduces drug absorption
- For stomach ulcers, your doctor will first rule out stomach cancer before starting Nizatidine capsules
Oral solution
How this form is used
- Nizatidine oral solution is used to treat active duodenal ulcers for up to 8 weeks
- Nizatidine oral solution is used for maintenance therapy to prevent duodenal ulcer recurrence after healing
- Nizatidine oral solution is used to treat GERD and erosive esophagitis for up to 12 weeks in adults, and up to 8 weeks in patients 12 years and older
- Nizatidine oral solution is used to treat active benign gastric ulcers for up to 8 weeks
- Nizatidine oral solution is taken by mouth; each mL contains 15 mg of nizatidine — use the measuring device provided
- Nizatidine oral solution can be taken with or without food
- Nizatidine oral solution is approved for adolescents 12 years of age and older as well as adults
- Follow your prescriber's dosing schedule — the solution is typically given twice daily for GERD and erosive esophagitis in adolescents
📊 Nizatidine across the U.S. market
How Nizatidine 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.
FDA-listed product records by dose form (tablet variants merged) — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (2) — 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 Nizatidine is used
A general measure of how commonly Nizatidine 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 Nizatidine 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 Nizatidine prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Nizatidine ranks #1,003 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 37% of them.
Utilization by Nizatidine 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.
nizatidine 150 MG Oral Capsule Most dispensed
Summed across the 2 of 29 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 312025
nizatidine 300 MG Oral Capsule
Summed across the 1 of 24 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 198041
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 Nizatidine, 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 3 of 53 listed Nizatidine NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Nizatidine products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Nizatidine — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Capsule | ||||
| 150 mg | — | Actavis Pharma, Inc. | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | Actavis Pharma, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg | Oral | Actavis Pharma, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg | — | Actavis Pharma, Inc. | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | Bryant Ranch Prepack | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 150 mg | Oral | Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg | Oral | Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | Epic Pharma, LLC | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg | Oral | Epic Pharma, LLC | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg | Oral | Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | NuCare Pharmaceuticals,Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 150 mg | Oral | Proficient Rx LP | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Oral solution | ||||
| 15 mg/mL | Oral | Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 1 kg/kg | — | Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Solara Active Pharma Sciences Limited | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 20 of 20 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 20 Nizatidine 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 Nizatidine — 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 Nizatidine 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 Nizatidine 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 42319 4 dose forms · 5 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Injectable Solution RxCUI 377199No current FDA listingClinical drug / strength (SCD) 25 MG/MLRxCUI 250851 -
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Capsule RxCUI 373110In current FDA listings -
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Solution RxCUI 476874In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 15 MG/MLRxCUI 476872 -
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Tablet RxCUI 373111No current FDA listingClinical drug / strength (SCD) 75 MGRxCUI 199420
Look up RxCUI 42319 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 Nizatidine 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
Nizatidine belongs to the Histamine-2 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 4 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.
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. Epic Pharma, LLC 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.