Hydralazine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Hydralazine 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 · Injectable · Solution
- Sold as
- 2 products — Apresoline and Hydralazine Hydrochloride
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
- Half-life
- about 3 to 7 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $1 for a 30-count supply — not your price
Every hydralazine 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 | 70/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $1 | View → | |
| 2 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Injectable | Generic | $1 | View → |
What hydralazine 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 hydralazine
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.
Hydralazine recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride
Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications
SKY PACKAGING · Jan 24, 2025
HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride
Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications
SKY PACKAGING · Jan 24, 2025
Hydralazine HCl Tablets
Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications; during routine stability testing for impurities.
The Harvard Drug Group LLC dba Major Pharmaceuticals and Rugby Laboratories · Nov 5, 2024
HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride Tablets
an out of specification result obtained during routine stability testing for Impurities. There is a remote possibility that use of this product could cause a medically reversible or transient adverse health consequences.
The Harvard Drug Group LLC dba Major Pharmaceuticals and Rugby Laboratories · Feb 9, 2024
HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride Tablets
Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications: Out of Specification (OOS) result in the repackaged product for Related Compounds (Impurities) at the 6-month time point.
Amerisource Health Services LLC · Feb 1, 2024
How long hydralazine keeps
No hydralazine 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.
Hydralazine and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for hydralazine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadLimited milk level and infant serum level data and a long history of use in postpartum mothers indicate that hydralazine is an acceptable antihypertensive in nursing mothers, even those nursing newborns.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised November 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about hydralazine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 2,929 reports naming hydralazine, 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:
- anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody positive vasculitis436 reports
- dyspnoea225 reports
- diarrhoea222 reports
- nausea204 reports
- hypertension196 reports
- arthralgia155 reports
- malaise155 reports
- acute kidney injury153 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean hydralazine 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 hydralazine stays in your system
The elimination half-life of hydralazine is about 3 to 7 hours. The FDA label states plasma levels of hydralazine decline with a half-life of 3 to 7 hours; the range partly reflects genetically determined (polymorphic) acetylation — slow acetylators reach higher plasma concentrations and clear it more slowly than fast acetylators. Hydralazine is cleared by extensive hepatic metabolism with its metabolites excreted in urine, so the half-life is prolonged in people with liver impairment or advanced kidney disease (lower doses are advised). It is not a prodrug and has no active metabolite that clinically outlasts the parent drug.
Hydralazine Hydrochloride Tablet — FDA Label (DailyMed, 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 hydralazine stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of hydralazine is about 3 to 7 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. The FDA label states plasma levels of hydralazine decline with a half-life of 3 to 7 hours; the range partly reflects genetically determined (polymorphic) acetylation — slow acetylators reach higher plasma concentrations and clear it more slowly than fast acetylators. Hydralazine is cleared by extensive hepatic metabolism with its metabolites excreted in urine, so the half-life is prolonged in people with liver impairment or advanced kidney disease (lower doses are advised). It is not a prodrug and has no active metabolite that clinically outlasts the parent drug. 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 hydralazine 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 hydralazine 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 hydralazine sold under?
We track 2 hydralazine-containing products in the U.S.: Apresoline and Hydralazine Hydrochloride. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does hydralazine come in?
Across the brands we track, hydralazine is currently marketed as tablet, injectable and solution, 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 hydralazine?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic hydralazine 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.
Has hydralazine been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists at least 5 recall records whose product description mentions hydralazine. The most recent: HydrALAZINE Hydrochloride (Jan 24, 2025). 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). Hydralazine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/hydralazine
- MLA
- “Hydralazine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/hydralazine.
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 hydralazine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.