Toripalimab-Tpzi
Toripalimab-tpzi is an immunotherapy drug used to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma (a type of head and neck cancer), either as a first-line combination treatment or as a single agent after prior chemotherapy.
🧬 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 →
📖 Toripalimab-Tpzi: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Toripalimab-Tpzi — 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▾
Toripalimab-tpzi (brand name Loqtorzi) is approved to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in adults in two distinct settings:
- Loqtorzi in combination with cisplatin and gemcitabine: First-line (initial) treatment of metastatic or recurrent locally advanced NPC in adults who have not previously received systemic chemotherapy for recurrent or metastatic disease
- Loqtorzi as a single agent: Treatment of adults with recurrent unresectable or metastatic NPC whose disease has progressed on or after a platinum-containing chemotherapy regimen
⚙️How it works▾
Toripalimab-tpzi is a humanized monoclonal antibody — a precision-engineered protein — that binds to the PD-1 receptor on T cells (immune cells). Certain tumors exploit this receptor by sending signals (via PD-L1 and PD-L2 proteins) that essentially tell the immune system to stand down, allowing the cancer to grow unchecked. By blocking PD-1, toripalimab-tpzi removes that suppression, freeing the immune system to mount a stronger attack against the tumor.
💊How it's taken▾
Loqtorzi is always given as an intravenous (IV) infusion by a healthcare professional — never taken by mouth. The schedule differs depending on how it is used:
- With cisplatin and gemcitabine (first-line NPC): Administered every three weeks, before chemotherapy on days when both are given, for up to 24 months or until disease progression or unacceptable side effects
- As a single agent (recurrent/metastatic NPC): Administered every two weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity
The first infusion takes at least 60 minutes. If no infusion-related reactions occur, later infusions may be shortened to 30 minutes. No dose reductions are made; your doctor may pause or stop treatment depending on side effects. Always follow your prescriber's specific instructions.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Side effects vary depending on whether Loqtorzi is used with chemotherapy or alone. Common reactions include:
- Nausea, vomiting, and constipation (especially with combination chemotherapy)
- Decreased appetite
- Fatigue and malaise
- Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
- Rash or skin reactions
- Musculoskeletal pain (muscles and joints)
- Diarrhea
- Upper respiratory infections
- Peripheral neuropathy (numbness or tingling in hands or feet, mainly with combination therapy)
Serious immune-related reactions — including lung, liver, kidney, skin, heart, and hormonal problems — can occur and require prompt medical attention. Report any new or unusual symptoms to your care team right away.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
The most critical risk with toripalimab-tpzi is immune-mediated adverse reactions — when the immune system becomes overactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue. These reactions can affect any organ (lungs, liver, colon, kidneys, skin, heart, nerves, hormone glands) and can be severe or fatal. They may happen during treatment or after it has been stopped. Your care team will monitor your blood (liver enzymes, creatinine, thyroid) regularly.
- Pneumonitis (lung inflammation): Watch for new cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
- Colitis (bowel inflammation): Watch for persistent diarrhea or severe abdominal pain
- Hepatitis (liver inflammation): Watch for jaundice (yellowing), dark urine, or right-sided abdominal pain
- Endocrinopathies (hormone gland problems): Including thyroid disorders, adrenal insufficiency, and type 1 diabetes — watch for unexplained fatigue, weight changes, headaches, or high blood sugar
- Nephritis (kidney inflammation): Watch for reduced urination or swelling
- Myocarditis (heart inflammation): Chest pain or abnormal heart rhythm — requires permanent discontinuation
- Severe skin reactions: Including Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN)
- Infusion-related reactions: Your first infusion will be closely monitored
- Stem cell transplant complications: Serious and fatal complications can occur in patients who undergo allogeneic HSCT before or after treatment with Loqtorzi
- Embryo-fetal toxicity: Can cause fetal death or harm; not for use during pregnancy
🔀What it interacts with▾
The FDA label for toripalimab-tpzi does not identify specific drug, food, or supplement interactions. However, always tell your entire care team about every medication, supplement, and herbal product you take before starting Loqtorzi.
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▾
- Pregnancy: Loqtorzi can cause fetal harm, including increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth; do not use if pregnant; a pregnancy test is required before starting treatment
- Contraception: Women who can become pregnant must use effective birth control during treatment and for 4 months after the last dose
- Breastfeeding: Do not breastfeed during treatment or for 4 months after the last dose due to risk of serious effects on the infant
- Children: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established
- Older adults (65+): May receive Loqtorzi; limited data available for NPC patients over 65; no overall safety differences were observed in broader pooled data
- Organ transplant history: Risk of serious transplant rejection; tell your doctor if you have had a solid organ transplant
- Stem cell transplant (HSCT): Fatal complications have been reported in patients who had allogeneic HSCT before or after PD-1 blocking therapy; discuss with your doctor
- Liver or kidney impairment: Mild impairment does not significantly affect how the drug behaves; effects of moderate to severe impairment have not been fully studied
- Autoimmune conditions or prior immune-related toxicities: Discuss any history of autoimmune disease with your doctor before starting
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
The precise relationship between toripalimab-tpzi blood levels and its effects in the body — including how quickly it produces a response and how long that response lasts — has not been fully characterized based on current data.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
After IV infusion, toripalimab-tpzi distributes into a relatively small volume (about 3.7 liters), consistent with being confined mainly to the bloodstream and tissues, as expected for a large antibody. The drug reaches steady levels in the body by around week 7 of treatment. Its half-life (the time for half the drug to clear from the body) is approximately 10 days after the first dose and extends to about 18 days with continued dosing. Like other antibodies, it is broken down into small peptides through normal metabolic pathways — not through the liver enzymes that process many other drugs. Age, weight, sex, race, and mild kidney or liver impairment do not meaningfully change how the drug behaves in the body.
📦How to store it▾
Store vials refrigerated at 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F) in original carton to protect from light. Do not freeze.
📄 Written from Toripalimab-Tpzi’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 Toripalimab-Tpzi
42 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Toripalimab-Tpzi in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 4
- Moderate · 37
- Minor · 1
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 Toripalimab-Tpzi — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is Loqtorzi and how is it different from regular chemotherapy? ▾
What side effects should I watch out for and report right away? ▾
How will I receive this medication and what happens during my infusion appointments? ▾
Will this affect my thyroid? I've heard immunotherapy can cause thyroid problems. ▾
Is it safe to get pregnant or breastfeed while on this treatment? ▾
What happens if I have a bad reaction — will I have to stop treatment forever? ▾
Is Toripalimab-Tpzi available over the counter? ▾
When was Toripalimab-Tpzi first available? ▾
Who makes Toripalimab-Tpzi? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Toripalimab-Tpzi’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 Toripalimab-Tpzi comes
Toripalimab-Tpzi 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
- Loqtorzi is used intravenously in combination with cisplatin and gemcitabine for the first-line treatment of adults with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)
- Loqtorzi is used intravenously as a single agent for adults with recurrent unresectable or metastatic NPC that has progressed on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy
- Loqtorzi is administered as an intravenous infusion; the first infusion is given over at least 60 minutes, and subsequent infusions may be given over 30 minutes if no infusion reactions occurred
- Loqtorzi should be administered before chemotherapy when both are given on the same day
- Loqtorzi should not be given through the same IV line as other medications
- Loqtorzi is given every three weeks when used with cisplatin and gemcitabine, or every two weeks when used as a single agent — always follow your care team's schedule
📊 Toripalimab-Tpzi across the U.S. market
How Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi is used
A general measure of how commonly Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Toripalimab-Tpzi ranks #1,495 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 6% of them.
Utilization by Toripalimab-Tpzi 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.
6 ML toripalimab-tpzi 40 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 1 of 1 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 2669413
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 Toripalimab-Tpzi, 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 1 listed Toripalimab-Tpzi NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Toripalimab-Tpzi products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Toripalimab-Tpzi — 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 | ||||
| 240 mg/6 mL | Intravenous | Coherus BioSciences, Inc. | BLA | View NDC → |
| 240 mg/6 mL | Intravenous | Coherus Oncology, Inc. × 2 listings | BLA | View NDC → |
Showing 3 of 3 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 3 Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi — 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi 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 2669406 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Injection RxCUI 2669410In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 6 ML toripalimab-tpzi 40 MG/MLRxCUI 2669413
Look up RxCUI 2669406 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 Toripalimab-Tpzi 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
Toripalimab-Tpzi belongs to the Programmed Death Receptor-1 Blocking Antibody 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. Coherus Oncology, 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.