Clevidipine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Clevidipine is a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker sold in the U.S. under one brand, for hypertension. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Dihydropyridine Calcium Channel Blocker
- Treats
- Hypertension
- Available as
- Emulsion
- Sold as
- Cleviprex
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
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How clevidipine is dosed
From the FDA label for Cleviprex (application NDA022156). Other clevidipine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
For intravenous use : Cleviprex is intended for intravenous use. Titrate Cleviprex to achieve the desired blood pressure reduction. Individualize dosage depending on the blood pressure response of the patient and the goal blood pressure. (2.2) Monitoring : Monitor blood pressure and heart rate during infusion, and until vital signs stabilize. (2.1) Initial dose : Initiate intravenous infusion of Cleviprex at 1- 2 mg/hour. (2.2) Dose titration : Double the dose at short (90 second) intervals initially. As the blood pressure approaches goal, increase the dose by less than doubling and lengthen the time between dose adjustments to every 5-10 minutes. An approximately 1-2 mg/hour increase will generally produce an additional 2-4 mmHg decrease in systolic pressure. (2.2) Maintenance dose : Most patients will achieve the desired therapeutic response at approximately 4-6 mg/hour. Severe hypertension is likely to require higher doses. (2.2) Maximum dose : Most patients have received maximum doses of 16 mg/hour or less. There is limited experience with short-term dosing as high as 32 mg/hour. Because of lipid load restrictions, no more than 1000 mL or an average of 21 mg/hour of Cleviprex infusion is recommended per 24 hour period. There is little experience beyond 72 hours at any dose. (2.2) 2.1 Monitoring Monitor blood pressure and heart rate continually during infusion, and then…
Clevidipine side effects
The following risk is discussed elsewhere in the labeling: Hypotension and Reflex Tachycardia [see Warnings and Precautions (5.2)] Most common adverse reactions (>2%) are headache, nausea, and vomiting. (6.1) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact The Medicines Company at 1-888-977-MDCO (6326) or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Cleviprex clinical development included 19 studies, with 99 healthy subjects and 1307 hypertensive patients who received at least one dose of clevidipine (1406 total exposures). Clevidipine was evaluated in 15 studies in hypertensive patients: 1099 patients with perioperative hypertension, 126 with severe hypertension and 82 patients with essential hypertension. The desired therapeutic response was achieved at doses of 4-6 mg/hour. Cleviprex was infused for <24 hours in the majority of patients (n=1199); it was infused as a continuous infusion in an additional 93 patients for durations between 24 and 72 hours. 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. Perioperative Hypertension The placebo-controlled experience with Cleviprex in the perioperative setting was both small and brief…
Who shouldn’t take clevidipine
Cleviprex is contraindicated in patients with: Allergy to soy or eggs (4.1) Defective lipid metabolism (4.2) Severe aortic stenosis (4.3) 4.1 Known Allergy Cleviprex is contraindicated in patients with allergies to soybeans, soy products, eggs, or egg products. 4.2 Defective Lipid Metabolism Cleviprex is contraindicated in patients with defective lipid metabolism such as pathologic hyperlipemia, lipoid nephrosis, or acute pancreatitis if it is accompanied by hyperlipidemia. 4.3 Severe Aortic Stenosis Cleviprex is contraindicated in patients with severe aortic stenosis because afterload reduction can be expected to reduce myocardial oxygen delivery.
Clevidipine drug interactions
No clinical drug interaction studies were conducted. Clevidipine and its major dihydropyridine metabolite do not have the potential for blocking or inducing any CYP enzyme. At clinically relevant concentrations, clevidipine and its metabolites do not inhibit or induce any CYP450 enzymes. The potential of clevidipine to interact with other drugs is low. (7)
Every clevidipine 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: Cleviprex.
Clevidipine recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
What people report to the FDA about clevidipine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 84 reports naming clevidipine, and the FDA flagged 88% 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:
- hypotension7 reports
- hypertensive crisis5 reports
- hypoxia5 reports
- respiratory failure5 reports
- treatment failure5 reports
- anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody positive vasculitis4 reports
- blood triglycerides increased4 reports
- acute kidney injury3 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean clevidipine 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 September 25, 2026.
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Frequently asked questions
What is clevidipine?
Cleviprex (Clevidipine) is a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker used to treat Hypertension.
What kind of drug is clevidipine?
The FDA classifies clevidipine as a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker. Dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers stop calcium from entering the muscle cells in your blood vessel walls. With less calcium, those muscles relax and the vessels widen, which lowers blood pressure and eases the heart's workload. 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 clevidipine 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 clevidipine 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 clevidipine come in?
Across the brands we track, clevidipine is currently marketed as emulsion, 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 clevidipine?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled clevidipine 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 clevidipine been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 1 recall record whose product description mentions clevidipine. The most recent: CLEVIPREX (clevidipine injectable emulsion) 50 mg/100 mL (0.5 mg/mL) (Jul 6, 2026). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Clevidipine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/clevidipine
- MLA
- “Clevidipine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/clevidipine.
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 clevidipine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.