Donepezil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Donepezil is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 4 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, orally disintegrating · System
- Sold as
- 4 products — Donepezil Hydrochloride, Aricept and Aricept ODT, and others
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
- Half-life
- about 70 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $1 for a 30-count supply — not your price
Every donepezil product we track (4)
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 | Tablet | Generic | $1 | View → | |
| 2 | 70/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $1 | View → | |
| 3 | 70/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $1 | View → | |
| 4 | Not yet rated | Prescription | System | Generic | $1 | View → |
What donepezil 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 donepezil
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 donepezil?
At least one donepezilproduct 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 donepezil label says about crushing, splitting and chewingHow long donepezil keeps
No donepezil 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.
What people report to the FDA about donepezil
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 5,119 reports naming donepezil, and the FDA flagged 81% 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:
- fall481 reports
- diarrhoea318 reports
- fatigue308 reports
- dizziness304 reports
- nausea267 reports
- confusional state246 reports
- asthenia226 reports
- decreased appetite219 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean donepezil 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.
How long donepezil stays in your system
The elimination half-life of donepezil is about 70 hours. The label states plainly: "The elimination half life of donepezil is about 70 hours" — one figure, no separate distribution/terminal phases reported. That is unusually long for an oral drug: the label notes donepezil accumulates 4- to 7-fold with repeat dosing and does not reach steady state for about 15 days. Active metabolite: donepezil is extensively metabolized (CYP2D6 and CYP3A4) to four major metabolites, two of them active. The main one, 6-O-desmethyl donepezil, is reported to inhibit acetylcholinesterase to the same extent as donepezil in vitro and circulates at roughly 20% of donepezil's plasma concentration — but the label does NOT state its half-life, so no number is given here. Populations the label names: clearance falls with age (a 90-year-old has about 17% lower clearance than a 65-year-old; a 40-year-old about 33% higher), which the label calls possibly not clinically significant. In stable alcoholic cirrhosis, clearance was about 20% lower. In moderate-to-severe renal impairment (CrCl < 18 mL/min/1.73 m2), clearance did not differ from healthy matched subjects. CYP2D6 poor metabolizers clear it about 31.5% more slowly; ultra-rapid metabolizers about 24% faster. Half-life describes how the body clears the drug — it is not a drug-test detection window and not dosing guidance.
DailyMed — DONEPEZIL HYDROCHLORIDE tablet, film coated (FDA label, §12.3 Pharmacokinetics) ↗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 donepezil stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of donepezil is about 70 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. The label states plainly: "The elimination half life of donepezil is about 70 hours" — one figure, no separate distribution/terminal phases reported. That is unusually long for an oral drug: the label notes donepezil accumulates 4- to 7-fold with repeat dosing and does not reach steady state for about 15 days. Active metabolite: donepezil is extensively metabolized (CYP2D6 and CYP3A4) to four major metabolites, two of them active. The main one, 6-O-desmethyl donepezil, is reported to inhibit acetylcholinesterase to the same extent as donepezil in vitro and circulates at roughly 20% of donepezil's plasma concentration — but the label does NOT state its half-life, so no number is given here. Populations the label names: clearance falls with age (a 90-year-old has about 17% lower clearance than a 65-year-old; a 40-year-old about 33% higher), which the label calls possibly not clinically significant. In stable alcoholic cirrhosis, clearance was about 20% lower. In moderate-to-severe renal impairment (CrCl < 18 mL/min/1.73 m2), clearance did not differ from healthy matched subjects. CYP2D6 poor metabolizers clear it about 31.5% more slowly; ultra-rapid metabolizers about 24% faster. Half-life describes how the body clears the drug — it is not a drug-test detection window and not dosing guidance. 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 donepezil 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 donepezil 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 donepezil sold under?
We track 4 donepezil-containing products in the U.S.: Donepezil Hydrochloride, Aricept, Aricept ODT and Adlarity. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does donepezil come in?
Across the brands we track, donepezil is currently marketed as tablet, tablet, orally disintegrating and system, 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 donepezil?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic donepezil product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Donepezil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/donepezil
- MLA
- “Donepezil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/donepezil.
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 donepezil on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.