Cefdinir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Cefdinir is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Capsule
- Sold as
- Omnicef
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Half-life
- about 1.7 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $0.12 per ml — not your price
Can you take cefdinir with…?
Source-cited answers for the combinations people actually ask about — each with a verdict and what to watch for.
Every cefdinir 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: Omnicef.
What cefdinir pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Cefdinir recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
Cefdinir for Oral Suspension USP
Defective container: lack of seal integrity.
Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc. · May 8, 2024
Cefdinir for Oral Suspension USP 250 mg/5 mL (60 mL when reconstituted)
Presence of foreign substance: Product complaint of foreign material in reconstituted bottle.
Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc. · Apr 24, 2024
Cefdinir for Oral Suspension USP 125 mg/5 mL (60 mL when reconstituted)
Presence of foreign substance: Product complaint of foreign material in reconstituted bottle.
Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc. · Apr 24, 2024
How long cefdinir keeps
No cefdinir label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does cefdinir expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsWhat people report to the FDA about cefdinir
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 7,943 reports naming cefdinir, and the FDA flagged 62% 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:
- diarrhoea568 reports
- chronic kidney disease486 reports
- pneumonia486 reports
- fatigue461 reports
- nausea410 reports
- renal failure364 reports
- sinusitis363 reports
- dyspnoea341 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean cefdinir 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.
How long cefdinir stays in your system
The elimination half-life of cefdinir is about 1.7 hours. First-order (linear) elimination, principally renal. Cefdinir is not appreciably metabolized and activity is due to the parent drug, so there is no active metabolite and it is not a prodrug. Half-life is prolonged in kidney impairment (roughly 2-fold at CLcr 30–60 mL/min and about 5-fold at CLcr under 30 mL/min); in the elderly the half-life is essentially unchanged (2.2 vs 1.8 hours) with higher exposure driven by reduced clearance rather than a longer half-life.
DailyMed — CEFDINIR capsule (FDA label) ↗Half-life is how long the body takes to clear half a dose. It is not the same as how long a drug test can detect it, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
How long does cefdinir stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of cefdinir is about 1.7 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. First-order (linear) elimination, principally renal. Cefdinir is not appreciably metabolized and activity is due to the parent drug, so there is no active metabolite and it is not a prodrug. Half-life is prolonged in kidney impairment (roughly 2-fold at CLcr 30–60 mL/min and about 5-fold at CLcr under 30 mL/min); in the elderly the half-life is essentially unchanged (2.2 vs 1.8 hours) with higher exposure driven by reduced clearance rather than a longer half-life. Half-life is not the same as how long a drug test can detect the drug, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Can you take cefdinir 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 cefdinir 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 cefdinir come in?
Across the brands we track, cefdinir is currently marketed as capsule, 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 cefdinir?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled cefdinir 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.
Has cefdinir been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 3 recall records whose product description mentions cefdinir. The most recent: Cefdinir for Oral Suspension USP (May 8, 2024). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
What should I avoid while taking cefdinir?
Other medicines: we hold source-cited interaction answers for Can you take cefdinir and Tylenol together?. This is what the FDA label and our cited sources say — it is not a complete list. Your pharmacist can check your own combination.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Cefdinir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cefdinir
- MLA
- “Cefdinir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cefdinir.
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 cefdinir on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.