Zirtek Allergy 10 mg film-coated tablets

One film-coated tablet contains 10 mg cetirizine dihydrochloride

Excipients: one film-coated tablet contains 66.40 mg lactose-monohydrate

For a full list of excipients, see section 6.1

Film-coated tablets

White, oblong, film-coated tablet,with breakline and Y-Y logo

In adults and paediatric patients 6 years and above:

− Cetirizine is indicated for the relief of nasal and ocular-symptoms of seasonal and perennial rhinitis.

− Cetirizine is indicated for the relief of symptoms of chronic idiopathic urticaria.

Children aged from 6 to 12 years: 5 mg twice daily (a half tablet twice daily).

Adults and adolescents over 12 years of age: 10 mg once daily (1 tablet).

The tablets need to be swallowed with a glass of liquid.

Elderly subjects: data do not suggest that the dose needs to be reduced in elderly subjects provided that the renal function is normal.

Patients with moderate to severe renal impairment: there are no data to document the efficacy/safety ratio in patients with renal impairement. Since cetirizine is mainly excreted via renal route (see section 5.2), in cases no alternative treatment can be used, the dosing intervals must be individualized according to renal function. Refer to the following table and adjust the dose as indicated. To use this dosing table, an estimate of the patient's creatinine clearance (CL_cr) in ml/min is needed. The CL_cr (ml/min) may be estimated from serum creatinine (mg/dl) determination using the following formula:

Dosing adjustments for adult patients with impaired renal function

In pediatric patients suffering from renal impairment, the dose will have to be adjusted on an individual basis taking into account the renal clearance of the patient, his age and his body weight.

Patients with hepatic impairment: no dose adjustment is needed in patients with solely hepatic impairment.

Patients with hepatic impairment and renal impairment: dose adjustment is recommended (see Patients with moderate to severe renal impairment above).

Hypersensitivity to the active substance, to any of the excipients, to hydroxyzine or to any piperazine derivatives.

Patients with severe renal impairment at less than 10 ml/min creatinine clearance.

Patients with rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance, the Lapp lactase deficiency or glucose- galactose malabsorption should not take cetirizine film-coated tablets.

At therapeutic doses, no clinically significant interactions have been demonstrated with alcohol (for a blood alcohol level of 0.5 g/L). Nevertheless, precaution is recommended if alcohol is taken concomitantly.

Caution in epileptic patients and patients at risk of convulsions is recommended.

The use of the film-coated tablet formulation is not recommended in children aged less than 6 years since this formulation does not allow for appropriate dose adaptation.

Due to the pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and tolerance profile of cetirizine, no interactions are expected with this antihistamine. Actually, neither pharmacodynamic nor significant pharmacokinetic interaction was reported in drug-drug interactions studies performed, notably with pseudoephedrine or theophylline (400 mg/day).

The extent of absorption of cetirizine is not reduced with food, although the rate of absorption is decreased.

For cetirizine very rare clinical data on exposed pregnancies are available. Animal studies do not indicate direct or indirect harmful effects with respect to pregnancy, embryonal/fetal development, parturition or postnatal development. Caution should be exercised when prescribing to pregnant or breast feeding women because cetirizine passes into breast milk.

Objective measurements of driving ability, sleep latency and assembly line performance have not demonstrated any clinically relevant effects at the recommended dose of 10 mg.

Patients intending to drive, engaging in potentially hazardous activities or operating machinery should not exceed the recommended dose and should take their response to the medicinal product into account. In these sensitive patients, concurrent use with alcohol or other CNS depressants may cause additional reductions in alertness and impairment of performance.

Clinical studies have shown that cetirizine at the recommended dosage has minor undesirable effects on the CNS, including somnolence, fatigue, dizziness and headache. In some cases, paradoxical CNS stimulation has been reported.

Although cetirizine is a selective antagonist of peripheral H₁-receptors and is relatively free of anticholinergic activity, isolated cases of micturition difficulty, eye accommodation disorders and dry mouth have been reported.

Instances of abnormal hepatic function with elevated hepatic enzymes accompanied by elevated bilirubin have been reported. Mostly this resolves upon discontinuation of the treatment with cetirizine dihydrochloride.

Clinical trials

Double blind controlled clinical or pharmacoclinical trials comparing cetirizine to placebo or other antihistamines at the recommended dosage (10 mg daily for cetirizine), of which quantified safety data are available, included more than 3200 subjects exposed to cetirizine.

From this pooling, the following adverse events were reported for cetirizine 10 mg in the placebo-controlled trials at rates of 1.0 % or greater:

Although statistically more common than under placebo, somnolence was mild to moderate in the majority of cases. Objective tests as demonstrated by other studies have demonstrated that usual daily activities are unaffected at the recommended daily dose in healthy young volunteers.

Adverse drug reactions at rates of 1 % or greater in children aged from 6 months to 12 years, included in placebo-controlled clinical or pharmacoclinical trials are:

Post-marketing experience

In addition to the adverse effects reported during clinical studies and listed above, isolated cases of the following adverse drug reactions have been reported in post-marketing experience. For these less frequently reported undesirable effects, the estimated frequencies (uncommon: 1/1,000 to < 1/100, rare: 1/10,000 to < 1/1,000, very rare: < 1/10,000) are made based on post-marketing experience.

Blood and lymphatic disorders : Very rare: thrombocytopenia.

Immune system disorders : Rare: hypersensitivity; Very rare: anaphylactic shock

Psychiatric disorders : uncommon : agitation ; rare : aggression, confusion, depression, hallucination, insomnia ; very rare : tic

Nervous system disorders : Uncommon: paraesthesia; Rare: convulsions, movement disorders; Very rare: dysgeusia, syncope, tremor, dystonia, dyskinesia

Eye disorders : Very rare: accommodation disorder, blurred vision, oculogyration

Cardiac disorders : Rare: tachycardia.

Gastro-intestinal disorders : Uncommon: diarrhoea.

Hepatobiliary disorders : Rare: abnormal hepatic function (increased transaminases, alkaline, phosphatase, γ-GT and bilirubin).

Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders :Uncommon: pruritus, rash, Rare: urticaria, Very rare: angioneurotic oedema, erythema multiforme.

Renal and urinary disorders : Very rare: dysuria, enuresis, micturition difficulties.

General disorders and administration site conditions: Uncommon: asthenia, malaise; Rare: oedema.

Investigations : Rare: weight increase.

a) Symptoms

Symptoms observed after an overdose of cetirizine are mainly associated with CNS effects or with effects that could suggest an anticholinergic effect.

Adverse events reported after an intake of at least 5 times the recommended daily dose are: confusion, diarrhoea, dizziness, fatigue, headache, malaise, mydriasis, pruritus, restlessness, sedation, somnolence, stupor, tachycardia, tremor and urinary retention.

b) Management

Should overdose occur, symptomatic or supportive treatment is recommended. Gastric lavage should be considered following ingestion of a short occurrence.

There is no known specific antidote to cetirizine.

Cetirizine is not effectively removed by dialysis.

Pharmacotherapeutic group: Piperazine derivatives, ATC code: R06A E07

Cetirizine, a human metabolite of hydroxyzine, is a potent and selective antagonist of peripheral H₁-receptors. In vitro receptor binding studies have shown no measurable affinity for other than H₁-receptors.

In addition to its anti-H₁ effect, cetirizine was shown to display anti-allergic activities: at a dose of 10 mg once or twice daily, it inhibits the late phase recruitment of eosinophils, in the skin and conjunctiva of atopic subjects submitted to allergen challenge.

Studies in healthy volunteers show that cetirizine, at doses of 5 and 10 mg strongly inhibits the wheal and flare reactions induced by very high concentrations of histamine into the skin, but the correlation with efficacy is not established.

In a 35-day study in children aged 5 to 12, no tolerance to the antihistaminic effect (suppression of wheal and flare) of cetirizine was found. When a treatment with cetirizine is stopped after repeated administration, the skin recovers its normal reactivity to histamine within 3 days.

In a six-week, placebo-controlled study of 186 patients with allergic rhinitis and concomitant mild to moderate asthma, cetirizine 10 mg once daily improved rhinitis symptoms and did not alter pulmonary function. This study supports the safety of administering cetirizine to allergic patients with mild to moderate asthma.

In a placebo-controlled study, cetirizine given at the high daily dose of 60 mg for seven days did not cause statistically significant prolongation of QT interval.

At the recommended dosage, cetirizine has demonstrated that it improves the quality of life of patients with perennial and seasonal allergic rhinitis.

The steady - state peak plasma concentrations is approximately 300 ng/ml and is achieved within 1.0 ± 0.5 h. No accumulation is observed for cetirizine following daily doses of 10 mg for 10 days. The distribution of pharmacokinetic parameters such as peak plasma concentration (C_max) and area under curve (AUC), is unimodal in human volunteers.

The extent of absorption of cetirizine is not reduced with food, although the rate of absorption is decreased. The extent of bioavailability is similar when cetirizine is given as solutions, capsules or tablets.

The apparent volume of distribution is 0.50 l/kg. Plasma protein binding of cetirizine is 93 ± 0.3 %. Cetirizine does not modify the protein binding of warfarin.

Cetirizine does not undergo extensive first pass metabolism. About two third of the dose are excreted unchanged in urine. The terminal half-life is approximately 10 hours.

Cetirizine exhibits linear kinetics over the range of 5 to 60 mg.

Special populations

Elderly: Following a single 10 mg oral dose, half-life increased by about 50 % and clearance decreased by 40 % in 16 elderly subjects compared to the normal subjects. The decrease in cetirizine clearance in these elderly volunteers appeared to be related to their decreased renal function.

Children, infants and toddlers: The half-life of cetirizine was about 6 hours in children of 6-12 years and 5 hours in children 2-6 years. In infants and toddlers aged 6 to 24 months, it is reduced to 3.1 hours

Renally impaired patients: The pharmacokinetics of the drug were similar in patients with mild impairment (creatinine clearance higher than 40 ml/min) and healthy volunteers. Patients with moderate renal impairment had a 3-fold increase in half-life and 70 % decrease in clearance compared to healthy volunteers.

Patients on hemodialysis (creatinine clearance less than 7 ml/min) given a single oral 10 mg dose of cetirizine had a 3-fold increase in half-life and a 70 % decrease in clearance compared to normals. Cetirizine was poorly cleared by haemodialysis. Dosing adjustment is necessary in patients with moderate or severe renal impairment (see section 4.2).

Hepatically impaired patients: Patients with chronic liver diseases (hepatocellular, cholestatic, and biliary cirrhosis) given 10 or 20 mg of cetirizine as a single dose had a 50 % increase in half-life along with a 40 % decrease in clearance compared to healthy subjects.

Dosing adjustment is only necessary in hepatically impaired patients if concomitant renal impairment is present.

Non-clinical data reveal no special hazard for humans based on conventional studies of safety pharmacology, repeated dose toxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenic potential, toxicity to reproduction.

- Microcrystalline cellulose

- Lactose

- Colloidal anhydrous silica

- Magnesium stearate

Opadry Y-1-7000

- Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (E464)

- Titanium dioxide (E 171)

- Polyethlene glycol

Not applicable

5 years

No special precautions for storage.

Thermoformed transparent, colorless, physiologically inert PVC blister strip thermosealed by an aluminium foil covered by suitable lac; in a carton box.

Boxes of 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15, 20, 21, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60, 90, or 100 tablets.

Not all pack sizes may be marketed.

No special requirements

UCB Pharma Limited,

208 Bath Road

Slough

Berkshire

SL1 3WE

PL 00039/0542

12 December 2005

01 July 2010