Clarithromycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Clarithromycin is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Tablet · Tablet, extended release
- Sold as
- 2 products — Biaxin and Biaxin XL
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Half-life
- about 3 to 4 hours at 250 mg, rising to 5 to 7 hours at 500 mg (dose-dependent)
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $0.47 per ml — not your price
Every clarithromycin product we track (2)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72/100 | Prescription | Suspension | Generic | $0 | View → | |
| 2 | 72/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $0 | View → |
What clarithromycin pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Combination products containing clarithromycin
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Can you crush or split clarithromycin?
At least one clarithromycinproduct 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 clarithromycin label says about crushing, splitting and chewingHow long clarithromycin keeps
The date on a sealed pack is not the only one: some clarithromycin labels start a second clock once the product is opened or mixed, as short as 14 days.
The in-use limits clarithromycin labels print, quotedClarithromycin and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for clarithromycin: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadBecause of the low levels of clarithromycin in breastmilk and safe administration directly to infants, it is acceptable in nursing mothers. The small amounts in milk are unlikely to cause adverse effects in the infant. Monitor the infant for possible effects on the gastrointestinal flora, such as diarrhea, candidiasis (thrush, diaper rash). Unconfirmed epidemiologic evidence indicates that the risk of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis might be increased by maternal use of macrolide antibiotics during the first two weeks of breastfeeding, but others have questioned this relationship.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised March 21, 2022. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about clarithromycin
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 37,389 reports naming clarithromycin, and the FDA flagged 91% 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:
- nausea2,522 reports
- dyspnoea2,228 reports
- diarrhoea2,205 reports
- malaise1,854 reports
- headache1,787 reports
- pyrexia1,775 reports
- vomiting1,634 reports
- rash1,406 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean clarithromycin 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.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 25, 2026.
How long clarithromycin stays in your system
The elimination half-life of clarithromycin is about 3 to 4 hours at 250 mg, rising to 5 to 7 hours at 500 mg (dose-dependent). Clarithromycin has slightly nonlinear, dose-dependent kinetics, so the elimination half-life lengthens with higher doses (about 3-4 hours at 250 mg twice daily, 5-7 hours at 500 mg). Its active metabolite, 14-hydroxyclarithromycin (14-OH clarithromycin), outlasts the parent, with an elimination half-life of about 5-6 hours at 250 mg and 7-9 hours at 500 mg. Clarithromycin is cleared partly by the kidneys, so the half-life is prolonged and the drug accumulates in renal impairment (the label advises dose reduction when creatinine clearance is under 30 mL/min). In hepatic impairment, steady-state clarithromycin levels are unchanged but 14-OH metabolite levels are lower.
DailyMed — BIAXIN (clarithromycin) tablet, film coated / extended release / granule for suspension — Clinical Pharmacology ↗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 clarithromycin stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of clarithromycin is about 3 to 4 hours at 250 mg, rising to 5 to 7 hours at 500 mg (dose-dependent) — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. Clarithromycin has slightly nonlinear, dose-dependent kinetics, so the elimination half-life lengthens with higher doses (about 3-4 hours at 250 mg twice daily, 5-7 hours at 500 mg). Its active metabolite, 14-hydroxyclarithromycin (14-OH clarithromycin), outlasts the parent, with an elimination half-life of about 5-6 hours at 250 mg and 7-9 hours at 500 mg. Clarithromycin is cleared partly by the kidneys, so the half-life is prolonged and the drug accumulates in renal impairment (the label advises dose reduction when creatinine clearance is under 30 mL/min). In hepatic impairment, steady-state clarithromycin levels are unchanged but 14-OH metabolite levels are lower. 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 clarithromycin 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 clarithromycin against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is clarithromycin sold under?
We track 2 clarithromycin-containing products in the U.S.: Biaxin and Biaxin XL. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does clarithromycin come in?
Across the brands we track, clarithromycin is currently marketed as tablet and tablet, extended release, 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 clarithromycin?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled clarithromycin 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). Clarithromycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/clarithromycin
- MLA
- “Clarithromycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/clarithromycin.
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 clarithromycin on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.