STERILE DILUENT Sterile Water .7 mL/.7mL Injection, 10 syringes
by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC · 10 SYRINGE in 1 CARTON (0006-4175-88) / .7 mL in 1 SYRINGE (0006-4175-89)
NDC 00006-4175-88
🏷️ FDA NDC (as labeled)
0006-4175-88
billing pads the labeler segment with a zero
Brand
On market
Non-controlled
🗂️ Data synced Sep 17, 2026 · sources: openFDA · FDA label (DailyMed) · FDA Orange & Purple Book · First Databank · CMS NADAC, ASP, Medicare & Medicaid · RxNorm
📋 All sources & update times →
🆔 Identity & classification
FDA NDC (as labeled)
0006-4175-88
Product NDC
0006-4175
11-digit billing NDC
00006417588
NCPDP billing unit
ML — per mL (volume)
Application #
BLA101069
SPL Set ID
4304efd3-eca8-4b1a-bc87-3426d9f5bf73
DEA schedule
Non-controlled
Marketing category
BLA
Marketing status
On market
FDA listing status
Listed (active directory)
Marketing start
2023-08-21
Route
INTRAMUSCULAR, SUBCUTANEOUS
Dosage form
INJECTION
Substance
WATER
GCN Seq No
085560
GCN
55069
HICL code
042123
Ingredient (HICL)
Diluent 1,Live Virus Vac(Swfi)
HIC1 code
C
Therapeutic class — broad (HIC1)
Electrolyte Balance/Metabolism/Nutrition
HIC2 code
C5
Therapeutic class — intermediate (HIC2)
Carbohydrates And/Or Proteins
HIC3 code
C5O
Therapeutic class — specific (HIC3)
Diluent Solutions
AHFS code
96:00.00.00
AHFS class
Pharmaceutical Aids
FDB label name
STERILE DILUENT-MERCK LIVE VAC
FDB brand name
Diluent-Merck Live Virus Vacc
Legend status
F — Federal legend — prescription drug or device
Biologic (Purple Book)
351(a)
Why two NDCs?
The FDA registers this code as 0006-4175-88 — a 4-4-2 layout, and that's what's printed on the package and shown on DailyMed. For insurance claims, every NDC is standardized to a uniform 11-digit 5-4-2 format by adding a zero to the labeler segment → 00006-4175-88. Same drug, same package — only the format differs.
Where does this data come from?
Identifiers from the FDA openFDA NDC Directory and Structured Product Labeling; RxCUI from RxNorm (NLM); GPI from Medi-Span; GCN / HIC / AHFS / legend from First Databank.
🏭 Manufacturer & labeler
LabelerMerck Sharp & Dohme LLC
FDA applicationBLA101069 (BLA)
Labeler code00006
First marketedAug 2023
Product typeVaccine
Portfolio112 products on file
The labeler markets the product; the application holder owns the FDA approval. They’re often the same company but can differ (e.g. a repackager or an authorized generic). A mailing address / phone appears here when the manufacturer includes it in the product’s FDA label (not all do).
Where does this data come from?
Labeler, application holder and registered establishment from the FDA openFDA NDC Directory and Drugs@FDA; address/contact from the product’s FDA label.
🩺 Clinical
Label name STERILE DILUENT-MERCK LIVE VAC Ingredient Diluent 1,Live Virus Vac(Swfi)
📗 Our plain-language guide HelloPharmacist
- It can seem a little odd at first. In these products, sterile water plays the essential role of carrying or dissolving the actual active medication — like insulin — so it can be sa...
- Why is 'water' listed as the active ingredient on my medicine?
- No — these are very different products that should never be used interchangeably. Sterile Water for Injection is used only as a diluent for other drugs given by needle, and it must...
- Is Sterile Water for Injection the same as the eye wash or the irrigation product?
Patient education
Supplement & herbal interactions
Where does this data come from?
Plain-language summary from MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medicine); supplement & herbal interactions and nutrient depletion data from the Natural Medicines database; our full guide is HelloPharmacist editorial content.
💬 Questions about Sterile Water?
Ask a pharmacist →
Ask a licensed pharmacist directly — free, answered by our team.
💊 What it looks like
Color
Yellow
One label can cover several strengths, so colors may be combined — always confirm a loose pill against the dispensed prescription label or a pharmacist.
Where does this data come from?
Physical description (imprint, shape, color, scoring, coating) from this product’s FDA Structured Product Labeling (SPL), mirrored from DailyMed / openFDA.
🧪 Inactive Ingredients / Excipients
Inactive ingredients, also called excipients, are components of the drug product other than the active ingredient. They may include fillers, dyes, coatings, preservatives, flavors, or other formulation ingredients.
A current SPL was checked, but it does not contain a structured or narrative inactive-ingredient list for this product. This does not mean the product has no inactive ingredients.
Where does this data come from?
Source: official FDA Structured Product Labeling (SPL) via DailyMed and the openFDA label index. Structured
IACT rows and label-wide narrative are kept separate; availability and product-level specificity depend on the submitted label.Inactive ingredient FAQ
Are inactive ingredients the same for every manufacturer?
No. Inactive ingredients can differ by manufacturer, dosage form, strength, and package / product version.
Why might an inactive ingredient be missing?
Some SPLs do not provide a complete structured inactive-ingredient list, and older or unusual labels may only include the information in narrative text.
Can inactive ingredients matter?
Yes. They can matter for allergies, intolerances, dyes, gluten / lactose concerns, preservatives, and formulation differences — but confirm with a pharmacist or the manufacturer when it’s clinically important.
💲 Pricing
A drug doesn't have one price. Each row is a different public payment system, and none is what you'd pay at the counter — that depends on your insurance. The ⓘ on each row explains what it measures.
| Price system | Per each | Per package |
|---|---|---|
| Retail pharmacies payNADAC · weekly | Not in the retail survey — common for institutional, discontinued, or low-volume packs. | |
| Medicaid paysCMS SDUD · 12 mo | No recent Medicaid claims on file for this NDC — rare and low-volume NDCs are suppressed in the public data. | |
| Medicare drug plans payPart D · quarterly | No Part D plan price is available for this NDC in our data. | |
ℹ️
No price is published for this exact package yet. CMS surveys NADAC per package size, so a different pack of the same drug often has one.
Where does this data come from?
NADAC (National Average Drug Acquisition Cost) is the CMS weekly pharmacy-acquisition-cost survey — what pharmacies pay. ASP (Average Sales Price) is the CMS Medicare Part B drug-payment file, published quarterly. Medicaid pays is computed by us from CMS State Drug Utilization Data (total reimbursed ÷ units, trailing 12 months) — gross of rebates and inclusive of dispensing fees, so it reflects what Medicaid paid, not an acquisition cost. Medicare drug plans pay is the median negotiated point-of-sale unit cost across plans listing this NDC in the CMS quarterly Prescription Drug Plan pricing files, before rebates. The VA pays is the federal contract price (FSS, and the statutory Big 4 ceiling where listed) from the VA National Acquisition Center pharmaceutical price file. All are free public government data; each measures a different payer, so the figures are not directly comparable.
🔁 Therapeutic equivalents
| Product | Labeler | Pack | NADAC/unit | TE | Status | Price vs. this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sterile Diluent .7 mL/.7mLthis 00006-4175-88 | Merck | 10 syringes | — | — | FDA listed | — |
| Sterile Diluent .7 mL/.7mL 00006-4309-00 | Merck | 10 vials | — | — | Discontinued | — |
About this product: this is a biologic. Biologics don't have small-molecule generics — competition comes from FDA-licensed biosimilars (shown above), not generics.
Where does this data come from?
Equivalents are other NDCs of the same ingredient, form and route from the openFDA NDC Directory, ranked least-expensive-first by NADAC. Therapeutic-equivalence (AB) ratings come from the FDA Orange Book; biologics use the FDA Purple Book for biosimilar & interchangeable status.
⏳ Availability & biosimilar status
🏛️
1971
First FDA approval
Apr 1971
📍
2026
Currently FDA-listed
55 years listed
🧬
·
Biosimilars
see Purple Book
🧬Biologic — competition comes from biosimilars
Biologics have no small-molecule generics; biosimilar competition is tracked in the FDA Purple Book.
Where does this data come from?
Patents and exclusivity from the FDA Purple Book (biologics), refreshed from public FDA data. Biosimilar launch timing is an estimate, not a guarantee.
🗺️ Medicaid utilization & spend
📍 This exact package only: Medicaid data is reported per full 11-digit NDC — labeler, product and pack size — so every number here is for 00006-4175-88, not the drug overall. Other pack sizes report separately.
💊 Pharmacy benefit only: These are Medicaid outpatient pharmacy claims, billed by NDC. They exclude the medical benefit — clinic- or hospital-administered drugs billed under HCPCS J-codes — so drugs used mostly that way (e.g. Avastin, Lucentis, Keytruda) can look low or missing here. That’s expected, not an error.
📅 Q1 2025 – Q3 2025 · 3 quarters of data
ⓘ The newest quarter is usually incomplete when first published; states restate recent quarters in later CMS releases, so the latest figures typically revise upward. State coverage-policy changes can also shift quarter-to-quarter totals.
Prescriptions last 4 qtrs
90
Units reimbursed last 4 qtrs
90
Latest quarter Q3 2025
36Rx
Fee-for-service vs managed care ⓘ
Fee-for-service · 0 Rx Managed care · 90 Rx
State Medicaid map
Units reimbursed · per 100k residents
1.31.3
gray = no data reported ⓘ
Colors are per 100,000 residents, so big states don’t automatically dominate. Tap or hover a state for its actual totals.
Tap or hover a state
…for its Medicaid breakdown
Prescriptions—
Units—
Reimbursed—
🏆 Top states by units · per 100k residents
National units — by quarter
💵 About the dollar figures: “reimbursed” is what Medicaid paid pharmacies before confidential manufacturer rebates, so the program’s real net cost is lower than these numbers. Fee-for-service and managed-care claims are combined unless split above. Source: CMS State Drug Utilization Data; per-100k rates use 2023 Census population estimates.
🔬 Reported adverse events (FAERS)
Read carefully: FAERS reports are voluntary and unverified. Counts are not incidence, do not establish causation, are subject to reporting bias, and cannot be used to compare one drug to another. Shown for signal context only. Reports for STERILE DILUENT (this brand).
Top reported reactions
Age at onset
Reporter sex
Male · 35%
Female · 60%
Unknown · 5%
Serious outcomes
Where does this data come from?
Adverse-event reports from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA. FAERS reports are voluntary and unverified — counts are not incidence and don’t establish causation.
📦 Packaging — all sizes for this product
| Package NDC | Description | Marketing start | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00006-4175-88 You're viewing this | 10 SYRINGE in 1 CARTON (0006-4175-88) / .7 mL in 1 SYRINGE (0006-4175-89) | 2023-08-21 | Active |
🧭 About this NDC listing & data coverage
What data is (and isn’t) available for this NDC — tap to expand
| NDC identity (package / product / labeler codes) | ✓ Available |
| Labeler | ✓ Available |
| Product & package description | ✓ Available |
| Marketing category & status | ✓ Available |
| Active ingredient / dosage form / route | ✓ Available |
| FDA label (SPL via DailyMed) | ✓ Available |
| Package photos | ✓ Available |
| Inactive ingredients (structured) | — Not published for this NDC The labeler did not submit a structured excipient list, or no SPL is available. |
| NADAC pharmacy acquisition price (CMS) | — Not published for this NDC CMS publishes NADAC only for NDCs reported in its retail-pharmacy survey. |
| Orange Book / therapeutic-equivalence data | — Not published for this NDC Applies only to products approved under an NDA/ANDA; many listings are out of scope. |
| HCPCS J-code billing crosswalk | — Not published for this NDC Most self-administered / retail products have no J-code — that is normal. |
| Medicaid utilization (CMS SDUD) | ✓ Available |
“Not published” reflects what the public FDA / CMS / NLM sources provide for this exact package code — it is a property of the data feeds, not a judgment about the product.
Questions about this listing
Why is there no price listed?
The pricing shown on our NDC pages comes from CMS NADAC, a voluntary survey of retail community pharmacy invoices. CMS does not publish a NADAC for every NDC — packages outside the retail survey (institutional and hospital products, bulk packages, discontinued items, and many OTC items) may never receive one. A missing price reflects the survey's scope, not this product's actual cost, and does not mean the product is free or unavailable.
Is the NDC printed on the package the same as the 11-digit billing NDC?
Yes, they identify this exact package in different formats. The FDA registers it as 0006-4175-88, which is what is printed on the packaging and shown on DailyMed. Insurance claims use a fixed 11-digit 5-4-2 format, so the short segment is padded with a leading zero: 00006-4175-88, written without dashes as 00006417588. The Identity section at the top of this page lists every form of this code.
What do the three segments of this NDC mean?
In 00006-4175-88, the first segment (00006) is the labeler code FDA assigned to Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC; the middle segment (4175) identifies this specific product — its ingredient, strength, and dosage form; and the last segment (88) identifies this exact package size and type. Together they name one specific package of one specific product.
Is this package still being marketed?
Yes, per the latest FDA NDC Directory data on this page: this package is listed as actively marketed, with no marketing end date reported by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC. Listing status can change — the directory data on this page refreshes weekly.
Who lists this product with the FDA?
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC is the labeler of record for this NDC — the company under whose FDA-assigned code the package is listed. The labeler may be the manufacturer itself or a distributor marketing the product under its own code.
This page identifies an FDA-listed package (the NDC) and reports public regulatory and pricing data about the listing. It is reference information, not a medical recommendation — talk to your pharmacist or prescriber about your own medication.
Where does this data come from?
Listing facts (marketing category, packager status, marketing dates) from the FDA openFDA NDC Directory; label availability from DailyMed; pricing coverage from CMS NADAC; equivalence scope from the FDA Orange Book.
📄 Full FDA label FDA SPL
The complete FDA label for this product, verbatim, section by section. Jump with a chip, search within the label, or expand everything.
📄 FDA label ▾
No FDA label is on file for this product yet. Labels load from openFDA / DailyMed and refresh weekly.
No label section mentions that — try another word, or open the full label on DailyMed below.
Source: FDA Structured Product Labeling, mirrored from DailyMed / openFDA.
Prefer the government’s original formatting? View this label on DailyMed ↗
For educational and professional reference only — not medical advice. Pricing reflects published
NADAC and CMS ASP (free public data) and may differ from your acquisition cost; always verify before billing or dispensing.