Skip to content
ppharmaranks
Menu

Cholic Acid: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Cholic Acid is a bile acid sold in the U.S. under one brand, for zellweger syndrome. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Drug class
Bile Acid
Treats
Zellweger Syndrome
Available as
Capsule
Sold as
Cholbam
Prescription?
Prescription only
Generic available?
Not in our catalog

How cholic acid is dosed

From the FDA label for Cholbam (application NDA205750). Other cholic acid products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.

The recommended dosage is 10 to 15 mg/kg once daily or in two divided doses, in pediatric patients and adults. See prescribing information for weight-based dosing tables. ( 2.1 ) • The recommended dosage in patients with concomitant familial hypertriglyceridemia is 11 to 17 mg/kg once daily or in two divided doses and is adjusted based on clinical response. ( 2.1 ) • Monitor AST, ALT, GGT, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and INR every month for the first 3 months, every 3 months for the next 9 months, every 6 months during the next three years and annually thereafter. Administer the lowest dose that effectively maintains liver function. ( 2.2 ) • Discontinue CHOLBAM if liver function does not improve within 3 months of starting treatment, if complete biliary obstruction develops, or if there are persistent clinical or laboratory indicators of worsening liver function or cholestasis; continue to monitor liver function and consider restarting at a lower dose when parameters return to baseline. ( 2.2 , 5.1 ) Administration Instructions: • Take with food. ( 2.3 ) • Do not crush or chew the capsules. For patients unable to swallow the capsules, the capsules can be opened and the contents mixed with drink/food ( 2.3 ) 2.1. Dosage Regimen for Bile Acid Synthesis Disorders Due to SEDs and PDs Including Zellweger Spectrum Disorders The recommended dosage of CHOLBAM is 10 to 15 mg/kg…

Cholic Acid side effects

The following clinically significant adverse reaction is described elsewhere in the labeling: • Exacerbation of Liver Impairment [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 )] Most common adverse reactions (≥1%) are diarrhea, reflux esophagitis, malaise, jaundice, skin lesion, nausea, abdominal pain, intestinal polyp, urinary tract infection, and peripheral neuropathy. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Mirum Pharmaceuticals at 1-855-MRM-4YOU or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch . 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. Clinical safety experience with CHOLBAM consists of: • Trial 1: a non-randomized, open-label, single-arm trial of 50 patients with bile acid synthesis disorders due to SEDs and 29 patients with PDs including Zellweger spectrum disorders. Safety data are available over the 18 years of the trial. • Trial 2: an extension trial of 12 new patients (10 SED and 2 PD) along with 31 (21 SED and 10 PD) patients who rolled over from Trial 1. Safety data are available for 3 years and 11 months of treatment. Adverse events were not collected systematically in either of these trials. Most patients…

Who shouldn’t take cholic acid

None. None ( 4 )

Cholic Acid drug interactions

Bile Salt Efflux Pump (BSEP) Inhibitors (e.g., cyclosporine): Avoid concomitant use; if concomitant use is necessary, monitor serum transaminases and bilirubin ( 7.1 ) • Bile Acid Resins and Aluminum-Based Antacids: Take CHOLBAM at least 1 hour before or 4 to 6 hours (or at as great an interval as possible) after a bile acid binding resin or aluminum-based antacids. ( 2.3 , 7.1 ) 7.1. Effects of Other Drugs on CHOLBAM Drug interactions with CHOLBAM mainly relate to agents capable of interrupting the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids. Inhibitors of Bile Acid Transporters Avoid concomitant use of inhibitors of the bile salt efflux pump (BSEP) such as cyclosporine. Concomitant medications that inhibit canalicular membrane bile acid transporters such as the BSEP may exacerbate accumulation of conjugated bile salts in the liver and result in clinical symptoms. If concomitant use is deemed necessary, monitoring of serum transaminases and bilirubin is recommended. Bile Acid Binding Resins Bile acid binding resins such as cholestyramine, colestipol, or colesevelam adsorb and reduce bile acid absorption and may reduce the efficacy of CHOLBAM. Take CHOLBAM at least 1 hour before or 4 to 6 hours (or at as great an interval as possible) after a bile acid binding resin [see Dosage and Administration ( 2.3 )] . Aluminum-Based Antacids Aluminum-based antacids have been shown to adsorb bile acids in vitro and can reduce the availability of CHOLBAM. Take CHOLBAM at least 1 hour before or 4 to 6 hours (or at as great an interval as possible) after an aluminum-based antacid [see Dosage and Administration ( 2.3 )] .

Every cholic acid 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: Cholbam.

What cholic acid pills look like

Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.

Cholic Acid pill imprints
ImprintStrengthColourShape
50mg;ASK00150 mgorangecapsule
250mg;ASK002250 mgwhitecapsule

Can you crush or split cholic acid?

At least one cholic acidproduct is labelled to be swallowed whole — crushing an extended-release tablet releases the whole day’s dose at once. Which applies depends on the form you were given.

What each cholic acid label says about crushing, splitting and chewing

What people report to the FDA about cholic acid

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 158 reports naming cholic acid, and the FDA flagged 66% 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:

  • diarrhoea17 reports
  • seizure14 reports
  • vomiting12 reports
  • alanine aminotransferase increased10 reports
  • aspartate aminotransferase increased10 reports
  • pyrexia9 reports
  • abdominal pain6 reports
  • decreased appetite6 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean cholic acid 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 cholic acid?

Cholbam (Cholic Acid) is a bile acid used to treat Zellweger Syndrome.

What kind of drug is cholic acid?

The FDA classifies cholic acid as a bile acid. 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 cholic acid 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 cholic acid 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 cholic acid come in?

Across the brands we track, cholic acid 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 cholic acid?

We do not currently list a generic-labelled cholic acid 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). Cholic Acid: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cholic-acid
MLA
“Cholic Acid: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cholic-acid.

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 cholic acid on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.