Levofloxacin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Levofloxacin is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 5 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 · Drops
- Sold as
- 5 products — Levaquin, Levaquin in Dextrose 5% in Plastic Container and Levofloxacin, and others
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
- Half-life
- about 6 to 8 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $0.14 per ml — not your price
Every levofloxacin product we track (5)
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 | $0 | View → | |
| 2 | 72/100 | Prescription | Injectable | Generic | $0 | View → | |
| 3 | 72/100 | Prescription | Solution | Generic | $0 | View → | |
| 4 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Drops | Generic | $0 | View → | |
| 5 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Drops | Generic | $0 | View → |
What levofloxacin pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
How long levofloxacin keeps
The date on a sealed pack is not the only one: some levofloxacin labels start a second clock once the product is opened or mixed, as short as 2 days.
The in-use limits levofloxacin labels print, quotedLevofloxacin and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for levofloxacin: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadLevofloxacin amounts in breastmilk appear to be considerably lower than the infant dose and would not be expected to cause any serious adverse effects in breastfed infants. Fluoroquinolones such as levofloxacin have traditionally not been used in infants because of concern about adverse effects on the infants' developing joints. However, more recent studies indicate little risk. The calcium in milk might prevent absorption of the small amounts of fluoroquinolones in milk, but insufficient data exist to prove or disprove this assertion. Use of levofloxacin is acceptable in nursing mothers with monitoring of the infant for possible effects on the gastrointestinal flora, such as diarrhea or candidiasis (thrush, diaper rash). Avoiding breastfeeding for 1 hour or more after an intravenous dose and 4 to 6 hours after an oral dose should decrease the exposure of the infant to levofloxacin in breastmilk. Maternal use of eye drops that contain levofloxacin presents negligible risk for the nursing infant.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about levofloxacin
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 66,968 reports naming levofloxacin, 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:
- dyspnoea3,378 reports
- pneumonia3,298 reports
- nausea3,250 reports
- pyrexia3,186 reports
- fatigue3,023 reports
- diarrhoea2,843 reports
- arthralgia2,816 reports
- acute kidney injury2,746 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean levofloxacin 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 October 25, 2026.
How long levofloxacin stays in your system
The elimination half-life of levofloxacin is about 6 to 8 hours. Linear kinetics; the FDA label reports a mean terminal elimination half-life of roughly 6.3 hours after a 500 mg dose and 7.5 hours after 750 mg in adults with normal kidney function. Levofloxacin is not a prodrug and undergoes minimal metabolism, so there is no meaningful active metabolite that outlasts the parent drug. Because it is cleared mainly by the kidneys, the half-life is substantially prolonged in renal impairment — about 27 hours at creatinine clearance 20-49 mL/min and about 35 hours below 20 mL/min, which is why dosing is adjusted for kidney function. Hepatic impairment is not expected to affect elimination.
LEVOFLOXACIN tablet — DailyMed FDA label (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 levofloxacin stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of levofloxacin is about 6 to 8 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. Linear kinetics; the FDA label reports a mean terminal elimination half-life of roughly 6.3 hours after a 500 mg dose and 7.5 hours after 750 mg in adults with normal kidney function. Levofloxacin is not a prodrug and undergoes minimal metabolism, so there is no meaningful active metabolite that outlasts the parent drug. Because it is cleared mainly by the kidneys, the half-life is substantially prolonged in renal impairment — about 27 hours at creatinine clearance 20-49 mL/min and about 35 hours below 20 mL/min, which is why dosing is adjusted for kidney function. Hepatic impairment is not expected to affect elimination. 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 levofloxacin 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 levofloxacin 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 levofloxacin sold under?
We track 5 levofloxacin-containing products in the U.S.: Levaquin, Levaquin in Dextrose 5% in Plastic Container, Levofloxacin, Iquix and Quixin. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does levofloxacin come in?
Across the brands we track, levofloxacin is currently marketed as tablet, injectable, solution and drops, 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 levofloxacin?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic levofloxacin 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). Levofloxacin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/levofloxacin
- MLA
- “Levofloxacin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/levofloxacin.
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 levofloxacin on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.