Rifapentine
Rifapentine is an antibiotic used to treat active pulmonary tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection in eligible patients.
🧬 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 →
📖 Rifapentine: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Rifapentine — 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▾
Rifapentine is an antimycobacterial antibiotic approved for two distinct tuberculosis (TB)-related conditions. The specific indication depends on the product and the patient's age.
- Active pulmonary TB (ages 12 and older): Priftin tablets and rifapentine tablets are both approved to treat active TB lung infection caused by drug-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis, always as part of a combination regimen — never alone.
- Latent TB infection or LTBI (ages 2 and older): Priftin tablets and rifapentine tablets are approved for people who carry the TB bacteria but do not yet have active disease, particularly those at high risk of progression — such as close contacts of active TB cases, people with a recent positive tuberculin skin test, people living with HIV, or those with certain findings on a chest X-ray. Must always be combined with isoniazid.
- Important limitations: Rifapentine should never be used as the only TB drug. It is not recommended as a once-weekly continuation regimen with isoniazid in HIV-infected patients with active pulmonary TB, due to a higher risk of treatment failure or drug-resistant relapse. Active TB must be ruled out before using it for latent TB treatment. It is not recommended when resistance to rifamycins or isoniazid is suspected.
⚙️How it works▾
Rifapentine is a rifamycin antibiotic — a class of drugs specifically designed to fight mycobacterial infections like tuberculosis. After you take the tablet, the body converts a portion of rifapentine into an active compound called 25-desacetyl rifapentine. Together, these two forms work against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rifapentine itself accounts for roughly 62% of the combined activity against the bacteria, and its active metabolite contributes the remaining 38%.
Because TB bacteria can develop resistance to any single antibiotic, rifapentine is always prescribed alongside other TB medicines. This combination approach prevents the bacteria from adapting and ensures more effective treatment.
💊How it's taken▾
Rifapentine tablets are taken by mouth with food — a meal improves absorption and helps prevent nausea. Tablets may be crushed and stirred into a small amount of soft food for anyone who cannot swallow them whole; consume the mixture right away. The dosing schedule differs depending on whether treatment is for active TB or latent TB infection:
- Active TB: Uses a two-phase approach — a twice-weekly dosing schedule for the first 2 months (initial phase), followed by once-weekly dosing for the next 4 months (continuation phase), always with other anti-TB drugs and often under direct observation by a healthcare provider.
- Latent TB infection: Once weekly for 12 weeks, always combined with isoniazid, with doses often given under direct observation. Dose is based on body weight.
Never take rifapentine alone, and never skip doses — poor adherence significantly increases the risk of treatment failure and relapse. Always follow your prescriber's exact instructions.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Some side effects are common and manageable; others need prompt medical attention.
- Red-orange discoloration of urine, sweat, tears, saliva, and skin — harmless but very noticeable; can permanently stain contact lenses and dentures
- Nausea, vomiting, or upset stomach
- Headache
- Rash or skin itching
- Joint pain
- Increased sweating
- Anemia (low red blood cells) and other blood count changes
- Elevated liver enzyme levels (seen on blood tests)
- Hypersensitivity (allergic) reactions — more common during latent TB treatment; occurred in about 4% of patients in clinical trials
Seek immediate medical attention for any signs of liver injury (yellowing of skin or eyes, dark urine, severe fatigue), serious skin reactions (blistering, peeling, mouth sores), difficulty breathing, fainting, or severe diarrhea that persists after finishing the medication.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Liver injury (hepatotoxicity): Rifapentine can cause elevated liver enzymes and, in some cases, significant liver damage. Patients with pre-existing liver disease need especially close monitoring. Stop the medicine and call your doctor if you notice yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, or unusual fatigue.
- Serious allergic reactions: These can range from flu-like symptoms and hives to anaphylaxis (a life-threatening whole-body reaction) and severe skin conditions like Stevens-Johnson syndrome (painful blistering of skin and mouth lining). Stop the medicine at the first sign of a rash or mouth sores and seek care right away.
- Risk of TB relapse with certain patients: HIV-positive patients with active TB should not use rifapentine once weekly in the continuation phase alongside isoniazid — there is a documented higher rate of treatment failure and drug-resistant relapse. Patients with cavitary (cavity-forming) lung lesions or bilateral lung disease are also at higher risk of relapse and need close monitoring.
- Drug interactions: Rifapentine strongly activates liver enzymes that process many medications, which can make those other drugs less effective. This includes HIV antiretrovirals, hormonal birth control, blood thinners, anti-seizure medications, and many others.
- C. difficile colitis: Like all antibiotics, rifapentine can disrupt normal gut bacteria. Severe diarrhea — even weeks after finishing treatment — could signal a C. difficile gut infection that needs prompt evaluation.
- Porphyria: Avoid rifapentine in patients with porphyria (a rare group of metabolic disorders), as it may worsen the condition.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Rifapentine is a strong inducer of liver enzymes (CYP3A4 and CYP2C8/9), which means it speeds up the breakdown of many other medications — potentially making them less effective. Always tell your prescriber and pharmacist every medication you take.
- HIV protease inhibitors and some reverse transcriptase inhibitors: Rifapentine can significantly lower their blood levels, risking loss of HIV control — careful evaluation is needed before combining these
- Hormonal contraceptives (pills, patches, rings, implants, injections): rifapentine can make them fail — switch to or add a non-hormonal barrier method during treatment
- Warfarin (blood thinner): rifapentine may reduce anticoagulant effect; close INR monitoring and dose adjustments may be needed
- Antifungals (fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole): reduced blood levels, potentially lowering effectiveness
- Immunosuppressants (cyclosporine, tacrolimus): levels may drop, risking organ rejection in transplant patients
- Certain antiseizure medicines (phenytoin, phenobarbital): blood levels may be affected
- Methadone: rifapentine may lower methadone levels, potentially causing withdrawal symptoms
- Thyroid medication (levothyroxine), antidepressants, and many other drugs: check with your pharmacist for a full review of all your medications
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 rifamycins: Do not take rifapentine if you have ever had a hypersensitivity reaction to rifamycin antibiotics such as rifampin — this is a contraindication
- Liver disease: Use with caution and under close medical supervision; liver enzymes should be checked before and regularly during treatment
- Pregnancy: Animal studies showed fetal harm; potential risks in humans are not fully known. When taken in the last weeks of pregnancy, rifapentine may increase risk of bleeding in the mother and newborn. Discuss risks and benefits with your doctor
- Breastfeeding: It is unknown whether rifapentine passes into breast milk. If you breastfeed while taking rifapentine, watch your infant for signs of liver problems — irritability, prolonged unexplained crying, yellowing of the eyes, or changes in urine or stool color
- Hormonal contraceptive users: Rifapentine reduces the effectiveness of hormonal birth control — use an alternative or add a barrier method
- Children under 12 (active TB): Safety and effectiveness for active TB have not been established in children under 12
- Children 2–11 (latent TB): Rifapentine is approved for latent TB treatment in children as young as 2, but only in combination with isoniazid once weekly for 12 weeks
- Porphyria: Avoid rifapentine if you have this rare metabolic disorder
- Contact lens or denture wearers: Body fluids including tears may turn red-orange and permanently stain contact lenses or dentures
🚑If you take too much▾
There is limited direct experience with rifapentine overdose. Based on experience with related rifamycin drugs, if a large amount was taken recently, a healthcare provider may consider gastric lavage (stomach pumping) within a few hours, followed by activated charcoal to limit further absorption. Because rifapentine is highly bound to proteins in the blood and only a small portion is excreted in the urine, hemodialysis (kidney dialysis) or forced urination is not expected to meaningfully remove the drug from the body. If you suspect an overdose, contact Poison Control or go to the emergency room right away.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
After you take rifapentine by mouth with food, peak blood levels are reached within roughly 5 to 6 hours. Eating — especially a higher-fat meal — significantly increases how much of the drug is absorbed, which is why it should always be taken with food. The drug is very heavily bound to proteins in the blood (about 98%), mainly albumin. Rifapentine is converted by the body into an active metabolite called 25-desacetyl rifapentine, with both forms contributing to the drug's antibacterial activity. The drug has a half-life (the time for blood levels to fall by half) of roughly 13 hours, and the body clears it primarily through the feces (about 70%) and urine (about 17%), with most of the drug gone within 7 days of a dose.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 25°C (77°F); excursions permitted 15–30°C (59–86°F) (see USP Controlled Room Temperature). Protect from excessive heat and humidity.
📄 Written from Rifapentine’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 Rifapentine
64 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Rifapentine 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 · 53
- Minor · 10
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
Rifapentine has been associated with lower levels of 7 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 · 6
- 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 Rifapentine — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
Why do I have to take rifapentine with other TB medicines — why can't I just take this one? ▾
My urine has turned red-orange. Is something wrong? ▾
I'm on birth control pills. Do I need to worry about that while taking this medicine? ▾
What signs should make me call my doctor right away? ▾
I'm pregnant. Is it safe to take rifapentine? ▾
What happens if I miss a dose or stop taking rifapentine early? ▾
Is Rifapentine available over the counter? ▾
When was Rifapentine first available? ▾
Who makes Rifapentine? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Rifapentine’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 Rifapentine comes
Rifapentine 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
- Priftin tablets are used to treat active pulmonary tuberculosis in patients 12 years and older, always in combination with other TB medicines
- Priftin tablets are used to treat latent tuberculosis infection in patients 2 years and older at high risk of developing active TB, in combination with isoniazid
- Rifapentine tablets are used to treat active pulmonary tuberculosis in patients 12 years and older, always alongside other anti-TB drugs
- Rifapentine tablets are used to treat latent tuberculosis infection in patients 2 years and older, combined with isoniazid as a once-weekly 12-week regimen
- Take Priftin and Rifapentine tablets with a meal to improve absorption and reduce stomach upset
- Priftin and Rifapentine tablets may be crushed and mixed into a small amount of soft food for patients who cannot swallow them whole — eat the mixture right away
- Priftin for active TB is typically taken twice weekly during the first 2-month phase, then once weekly during the 4-month continuation phase — follow your prescriber's exact schedule
- Priftin and Rifapentine tablets for latent TB infection are taken once weekly for 12 weeks in combination with isoniazid, often with doses given under direct observation by a healthcare provider
📊 Rifapentine across the U.S. market
How Rifapentine 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 (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 Rifapentine is used
A general measure of how commonly Rifapentine 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 Rifapentine 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 Rifapentine prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Rifapentine ranks #1,053 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 34% of them.
Utilization by Rifapentine 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.
rifapentine 150 MG Oral Tablet
Summed across the 1 of 9 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 242671
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 Rifapentine, 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 9 listed Rifapentine NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Rifapentine products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Rifapentine — 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 | ||||
| 150 mg | Oral | A-S Medication Solutions × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | Macleods Pharmaceuticals Limited | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | RPK Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | NDA | View NDC → |
| 150 mg | Oral | sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 1 kg/kg | — | Cohance Lifesciences Limited | BULK INGREDIENT FOR HUMAN PRESCRIPTION COMPOUNDING | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Interquim, S.A. de C.V. | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 8 of 8 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 8 Rifapentine 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 Rifapentine — 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 Rifapentine 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 Rifapentine 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 35617 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Tablet RxCUI 373786In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 150 MGRxCUI 242671
Look up RxCUI 35617 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 Rifapentine 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
Rifapentine belongs to the Rifamycin Antimycobacterial 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.
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. sanofi-aventis U.S. 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.