Pentamidine Injection
Pentamidine injection is an antiprotozoal medicine used to treat Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a serious lung infection.
🧬 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 →
📖 Pentamidine Injection: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Pentamidine Injection — 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▾
Pentamidine injection is an antiprotozoal medicine used to treat a serious lung infection. Here is what it is approved for based on the available product evidence:
- Pentam 300 (pentamidine isethionate for injection) is indicated for the treatment of pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii (PCP) in adults and pediatric patients older than 4 months of age.
- Because of its serious potential side effects, Pentam 300 should only be given when Pneumocystis carinii has been confirmed as the cause of the pneumonia.
⚙️How it works▾
Pentamidine targets the microorganism Pneumocystis carinii directly. It interferes with the organism's ability to make DNA, RNA, fats (phospholipids), and proteins — essentially shutting down the core processes the organism needs to reproduce and survive. The exact molecular details of how it accomplishes this are not fully understood.
Pentamidine concentrates heavily in tissues like the liver, kidneys, and lungs — reaching levels far higher than those in the bloodstream. This deep tissue accumulation means the drug stays in the body for a long time, even after treatment ends.
💊How it's taken▾
Pentamidine injection is always given by a healthcare professional in a clinical setting — it is not a self-administered medication. It is given either as a deep intramuscular (IM) injection or as an intravenous (IV) infusion once daily, typically for 14 to 21 days. IV doses must be infused slowly over 60 to 120 minutes.
- The drug is given once daily — not multiple times per day.
- IV infusions must be given slowly to reduce the risk of a sudden drop in blood pressure.
- Do not use sodium chloride (saline) to prepare the solution — only Sterile Water for Injection or 5% Dextrose is appropriate, as saline causes the drug to precipitate (crystallize out of solution).
- Follow your care team's schedule exactly; do not stop treatment early without guidance.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Pentamidine injection has a wide range of possible side effects, and kidney effects are particularly common. Here are the ones reported most often:
- Elevated creatinine or impaired kidney function (very common)
- Low white blood cell count (leukopenia)
- Elevated liver enzyme levels
- Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
- Nausea or loss of appetite
- Pain, sterile abscess, or skin reaction at the IM injection site
- Low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Rash
- Elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) — a marker of kidney strain
Serious reactions that require immediate medical attention include sudden severe low blood pressure, dangerous drops in blood sugar, irregular heart rhythms, signs of pancreatitis (severe abdominal pain), and skin breakdown near the injection site. Deaths from these serious reactions have been reported.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
Pentamidine injection carries significant risks that require close medical supervision throughout treatment:
- Life-threatening low blood pressure can occur — even after a single dose — and is more likely if the IV infusion is given too quickly. You will be monitored during and after each dose.
- Dangerously low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) has caused fatalities. Blood sugar will be checked regularly during treatment.
- Acute pancreatitis (severe inflammation of the pancreas) has caused deaths. Report sudden, severe abdominal pain immediately.
- Serious heart rhythm problems, including ventricular tachycardia and torsades de pointes (types of dangerous irregular heartbeats), have been reported.
- Kidney damage is common — kidney function tests will be monitored throughout treatment. The drug should be used with extra caution alongside other medications that can also harm the kidneys.
- Extravasation (medicine leaking out of the vein into surrounding tissue) can cause serious tissue damage, ulceration, and scarring requiring surgery. The IV line must be properly placed and watched throughout the infusion.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Pentamidine can interact with several other medications, particularly those that also affect the kidneys:
- Aminoglycosides (e.g., gentamicin, tobramycin) — combining these with pentamidine may increase the risk of kidney damage, as both drugs are nephrotoxic.
- Amphotericin B — an antifungal that is also hard on the kidneys; combined use should be carefully monitored or avoided.
- Cisplatin — a chemotherapy drug with kidney toxicity; additive kidney damage risk.
- Foscarnet — both has additive kidney toxicity risk AND is physically incompatible with pentamidine IV solutions (they cannot be mixed in the same line).
- Vancomycin — another antibiotic that can harm the kidneys; concurrent use should be monitored closely.
- Fluconazole — physically incompatible with pentamidine IV solutions; cannot be mixed together.
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 pentamidine: Do not use this medication if you have ever had a serious allergic reaction to pentamidine isethionate.
- Kidney problems: Pentamidine can worsen kidney function and builds up to higher blood levels in patients with existing kidney disease. Kidney function will be closely monitored.
- Liver problems: The drug concentrates heavily in the liver; let your care team know if you have liver disease.
- Heart rhythm problems: Tell your doctor if you have a history of irregular heartbeat or are taking medications that affect heart rhythm.
- Low blood sugar history: People prone to hypoglycemia may be at higher risk of dangerous blood sugar drops.
- Children: Pentam 300 is used in pediatric patients older than 4 months; the dose is weight-based and must be calculated carefully.
- Other medications: Share a complete medication list with your care team, especially if you take antibiotics, antifungals, or other drugs that can affect the kidneys.
🚑If you take too much▾
An overdose of pentamidine injection is a medical emergency. A documented case involved a young child who received a very large intravenous dose and developed kidney and liver damage, severely low blood pressure, and cardiac arrest requiring resuscitation and intensive treatment including a procedure to filter the drug from the blood. If an overdose is suspected, emergency medical care is needed immediately.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Pentamidine acts directly against Pneumocystis carinii by shutting down the microorganism's ability to replicate — blocking production of DNA, RNA, fats, and proteins it needs to survive. In clinical use, this action treats the active pneumonia caused by this organism. The drug also has measurable effects on the human body, most notably causing drops in blood sugar, low blood pressure, and stress on the kidneys and liver, which is why close monitoring is essential during treatment.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
After an IV infusion, pentamidine reaches higher peak blood levels initially, while IM injection results in slower absorption and lower but more sustained levels. The drug distributes very widely into body tissues — concentrating in the liver, kidneys, and lungs at levels far exceeding those in the blood. Its half-life (the time for blood levels to fall by half) can range from about 6 hours up to 12 days, reflecting how deeply the drug embeds in tissues. Pentamidine is eliminated primarily through the kidneys largely unchanged, and traces can still be detected in the urine 6 to 8 weeks after the last dose.
📦How to store it▾
store at 22° to 30°C (72° to 86°F).
📄 Written from Pentamidine Injection’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 Pentamidine Injection
78 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Pentamidine Injection in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 8
- Moderate · 64
- Minor · 6
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
Pentamidine Injection has been associated with lower levels of 8 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 · 7
- Moderate · 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 Pentamidine Injection — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What is this medicine actually treating? ▾
How will I receive this medicine — do I take it at home? ▾
What side effects should I watch out for? ▾
Are there other medicines I should avoid while I'm on this? ▾
I've heard this drug can cause low blood sugar — what does that mean for me? ▾
Will my kidneys be okay on this medicine? ▾
Is Pentamidine Injection available over the counter? ▾
When was Pentamidine Injection first available? ▾
Who makes Pentamidine Injection? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Pentamidine Injection’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 Pentamidine Injection comes
Pentamidine Injection 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.
Injection
How this form is used
- Pentam 300 is used to treat pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii in adults and pediatric patients older than 4 months
- Pentam 300 is administered only to patients in whom Pneumocystis carinii infection has been confirmed
- Pentam 300 given intramuscularly is dissolved in Sterile Water for Injection and administered as a deep IM injection once daily
- Pentam 300 given intravenously is diluted in 5% Dextrose Injection and infused slowly over 60 to 120 minutes — never use sodium chloride (saline) for reconstitution as it causes precipitation
- Pentam 300 is typically given once daily for 14 to 21 days; treatment beyond 21 days may increase the risk of toxicity
- The IV line must be carefully placed and monitored throughout the infusion to prevent extravasation (medication leaking into surrounding tissue)
📊 Pentamidine Injection across the U.S. market
How Pentamidine Injection 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 Pentamidine Injection is used
A general measure of how commonly Pentamidine Injection 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 Pentamidine Injection 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 Pentamidine Injection prescribed? Of the 1,597 medications we measure, Pentamidine Injection ranks #1,290 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 19% of them.
Utilization by Pentamidine Injection 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.
pentamidine isethionate 300 MG Injection
Summed across the 3 of 12 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 861601
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 Pentamidine Injection, 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 12 listed Pentamidine Injection NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Pentamidine Injection products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Pentamidine Injection — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Injection | ||||
| 300 mg/3 mL | Intramuscular, Intravenous | Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC | NDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/300 mg | Intramuscular, Intravenous | Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc. d/b/a Avet Pharmaceuticals Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/300 mg | Intramuscular; Intravenous | Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc. d/b/a Avet Pharmaceuticals Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/300 mg | Intramuscular, Intravenous | PAI Holdings, LLC dba PAI Pharma | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/300 mg | Intramuscular, Intravenous | Seton Pharmaceuticals | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/300 mg | Intramuscular; Intravenous | Seton Pharmaceuticals × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/3 mL | Intramuscular, Intravenous | XGen Pharmaceuticals DJB, Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 300 mg/3 mL | Intramuscular; Intravenous | XGen Pharmaceuticals DJB, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
Showing 11 of 11 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 11 Pentamidine Injection 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 Pentamidine Injection — 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 Pentamidine Injection 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 Pentamidine Injection 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 7994 2 dose forms · 2 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Inhalation Solution RxCUI 2108335No current FDA listingClinical drug / strength (SCD) isethionate 50 MG/MLRxCUI 861597 -
Dose form (SCDF) Injection RxCUI 1811403In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) isethionate 300 MGRxCUI 861601
Look up RxCUI 7994 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 Pentamidine Injection 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
Pentamidine Injection belongs to the Antiprotozoal 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. Fresenius Kabi USA, 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.