Baricitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Baricitinib is a janus kinase inhibitor sold in the U.S. under one brand, for rheumatoid arthritis. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Janus Kinase Inhibitor
- Treats
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Available as
- Tablet
- Sold as
- Olumiant
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Boxed warning
- Boxed warning
How baricitinib is dosed
From the FDA label for Olumiant (application NDA207924). Other baricitinib products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Administration Instructions : See the full prescribing information for recommended evaluations and immunizations prior to treatment. ( 2.1 ) Rheumatoid Arthritis and Alopecia Areata: Avoid initiation or interrupt OLUMIANT in patients with anemia (hemoglobin <8 g/dL), lymphopenia (ALC <500 cells/mm 3 ) or neutropenia (ANC <1000 cells/mm 3 ). ( 2.1 , 2.5 , 5.9 ) COVID-19: Avoid initiation or interrupt OLUMIANT in patients with lymphopenia (ALC <200 cells/mm 3 ) or neutropenia (ANC <500 cells/mm 3 ). ( 2.1 , 2.5 , 5.9 ) Recommended Dosage : Rheumatoid Arthritis: 2 mg once daily. ( 2.2 ) OLUMIANT may be used as monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate or other non-biologic DMARDs. ( 2.2 ) COVID-19: 4 mg once daily for up to 14 days. ( 2.3 ) Alopecia Areata: 2 mg once daily. Increase to 4 mg once daily, if the response to treatment is not adequate. ( 2.4 ) For patients with nearly complete or complete scalp hair loss, with or without substantial eyelash or eyebrow hair loss, consider treating with 4 mg once daily. ( 2.4 ) Reduce the dose to 2 mg once daily when an adequate response has been achieved. ( 2.4 ) Dosage Modifications in Patients with Renal or Hepatic Impairment, or Cytopenias See the full prescribing information for dosage modifications by indication. ( 2.5 , 2.6 , 5.9 ) 2.1 Recommended Evaluations and Immunization Prior to Treatment Initiation Prior to OLUMIANT…
Baricitinib side effects
The following clinically significant adverse reactions are described elsewhere in the labeling: Serious Infections [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 )] Mortality [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.2 )] Malignancy and Lymphoproliferative Disorders [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.3 )] Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.4 )] Thrombosis [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.5 )] Hypersensitivity [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.6 )] Gastrointestinal Perforations [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.7 )] Hypoglycemia in Patients with Diabetes [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.8 )] Laboratory Abnormalities [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.9 )] Adverse reactions reported in clinical trials (≥1%) are: Rheumatoid Arthritis : upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), nausea, herpes simplex, and herpes zoster. ( 6.1 ) COVID-19: increases of liver enzymes, thrombocytosis, creatine phosphokinase increases, neutropenia, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and urinary tract infection (UTI) ( 6.1 ) Alopecia Areata : URTIs, headache, acne, hyperlipidemia, creatine phosphokinase increase, UTI, liver enzyme elevations, folliculitis, fatigue, lower respiratory tract infections, nausea, genital Candida infections, anemia, neutropenia, abdominal pain, herpes zoster, and weight increase ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Eli Lilly and…
Who shouldn’t take baricitinib
None. None.
Baricitinib drug interactions
In patients taking strong Organic Anion Transporter 3 (OAT3) inhibitors (e.g., probenecid) the recommended dosage should be reduced. ( 2.7 , 7.1 ) 7.1 Strong OAT3 Inhibitors Baricitinib exposure is increased when OLUMIANT is co-administered with strong OAT3 inhibitors (such as probenecid), hence the dosage of baricitinib should be reduced by half the recommended dose [see Dosage and Administration ( 2.2 , 2.3 ) and Clinical Pharmacology ( 12.3 )] . 7.2 Other JAK Inhibitors or Biologic DMARDs OLUMIANT has not been studied in combination with other JAK inhibitors or with biologic DMARDs [see Indications and Usage ( 1.1 , 1.2 )] .
Every baricitinib product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Olumiant.
What baricitinib pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Can you crush or split baricitinib?
The baricitinib labels that address it permit crushing or splitting in the terms they state — quoted per product, because the instruction belongs to the form.
What each baricitinib label says about crushing, splitting and chewingBaricitinib and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for baricitinib: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadNo information is available on the use of baricitinib during breastfeeding. Expert opinion recommends that mothers not breastfeed while taking baricitinib. An alternate drug is preferred, especially while nursing a newborn or preterm infant. The manufacturer recommends that women avoid nursing during therapy and for 4 days after the last dose.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised September 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about baricitinib
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 2,903 reports naming baricitinib, and the FDA flagged 93% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- covid-19173 reports
- pulmonary embolism170 reports
- pneumonia134 reports
- rheumatoid arthritis123 reports
- deep vein thrombosis122 reports
- acute kidney injury69 reports
- covid-19 pneumonia69 reports
- herpes zoster69 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean baricitinib caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is baricitinib?
Olumiant (Baricitinib) is a janus kinase inhibitor used to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis.
What kind of drug is baricitinib?
The FDA classifies baricitinib as a janus kinase inhibitor. JAK inhibitors block Janus kinase enzymes inside immune cells. These enzymes normally pass along messages from inflammatory signals (cytokines) to relay proteins that switch on genes, so blocking them turns down the overactive immune signaling that drives diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
Can you take baricitinib with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run baricitinib against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does baricitinib come in?
Across the brands we track, baricitinib is currently marketed as tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic baricitinib?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled baricitinib product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Baricitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/baricitinib
- MLA
- “Baricitinib: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/baricitinib.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for baricitinib on DailyMed (NIH) ↗ — including its boxed warning in full.