Acrivastine
Encyclopedia
Acrivastine is a medication used for the treatment of allergies and hay fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...

. It is a second-generation H1-receptor antagonist antihistamine
Antihistamine
An H1 antagonist is a histamine antagonist of the H1 receptor that serves to reduce or eliminate effects mediated by histamine, an endogenous chemical mediator released during allergic reactions...

 and works by blocking Histamine H1 receptors.

It is sold under the brand name Benadryl Allergy Relief in the U.K. by McNeil Laboratories
McNeil Laboratories
McNeil Consumer Healthcare is a medicals products company belonging to the Johnson & Johnson healthcare products group.-History:The company was founded on March 16, 1879 by 23-year-old Robert McNeil, who paid $167 for a drugstore complete with fixtures, inventory and soda fountain, as a retail...

, not to be confused with Benadryl Once a Day, which is cetirizine
Cetirizine
Cetirizine , a second-generation antihistamine, is a major metabolite of hydroxyzine, and a racemic selective H1 receptor inverse agonist used in the treatment of allergies, hay fever, angioedema, and urticaria.-Availability:...

 and is also sold by McNeil in the U.K.
It is available as an over-the-counter medication in the UK.

In the U.S., acrivastine is the active ingredient in the Semprex-D brand. Semprex-D is also acrivastine-based, but contains a decongestant, pseudoephedrine
Pseudoephedrine
Pseudoephedrine is a sympathomimetic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine chemical classes. It is used as a nasal/sinus decongestant and stimulant, or as a wakefulness-promoting agent....

. Semprex-D is marketed in the U.S. by Actient Pharmaceuticals LLC.

Comparisons with other popular antihistamines

Unlike cetirizine or loratadine, the standard dosage of which is one tablet every day, a single acrivastine tablet may be taken up to three times a day.. This can make it substantially more expensive than cetirizine or loratadine. Additionally, acrivastine is taken as a capsule, where as cetirizine and loratadine are usually sold as tablets.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK