Plecanatide: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Plecanatide is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand, for constipation. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Constipation
- Available as
- Tablet
- Sold as
- Trulance
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Boxed warning
- Boxed warning
How plecanatide is dosed
From the FDA label for Trulance (application NDA208745). Other plecanatide products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
The recommended adult dosage of TRULANCE is CIC: 3 mg taken orally once daily. ( 2.1 ) IBS-C: 3 mg taken orally once daily. ( 2.1 ) Administration Instructions ( 2.2 ): Take with or without food. Swallow tablets whole. For patients who have difficulty swallowing tablets whole or those with a nasogastric or gastric feeding tube, see full prescribing information with instructions for crushing the tablet and administering with applesauce or water. 2.1 Recommended Dosage The recommended dosage of TRULANCE for the treatment of CIC and IBS-C is 3 mg taken orally once daily. 2.2 Preparation and Administration Instructions Take TRULANCE with or without food [see Clinical Pharmacology (12.3) ] . If a dose is missed, skip the missed dose and take the next dose at the regular time. Do not take two doses at the same time. Swallow a tablet whole for each dose. For adult patients with swallowing difficulties, TRULANCE tablets can be crushed and administered orally either in applesauce or with water or administered with water via a nasogastric or gastric feeding tube. Mixing TRULANCE crushed tablets in other soft foods or in other liquids has not been tested. Oral Administration in Applesauce: In a clean container, crush the TRULANCE tablet to a powder and mix with 1 teaspoonful of room temperature applesauce. Consume the entire tablet-applesauce mixture immediately. Do not store the mixture…
Plecanatide side effects
Most common adverse reaction (≥2%) is diarrhea. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Salix Pharmaceuticals at 1-800-321-4576 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Because clinical studies are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared with rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. Demographic characteristics were comparable between the TRULANCE and placebo groups in all studies [see Clinical Studies (14) ] . Chronic Idiopathic Constipation (CIC) The safety data described below reflect data from 1,733 adult patients with CIC randomized in two double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (Study 1 and Study 2) to receive placebo or 3 mg of TRULANCE once daily for 12 weeks. Most Common Adverse Reactions Table 1 provides the incidence of adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of CIC patients in the TRULANCE-treated group and at an incidence that was greater than in the placebo group. Table 1: Most Common Adverse Reactions a in Two Placebo-Controlled Trials of TRULANCE [Study 1 and Study 2] in Patients with CIC Adverse Reaction TRULANCE, 3 mg (N = 863) % Placebo (N = 870) % a: Reported in at least 2% of TRULANCE-treated patients with CIC and at an incidence greater than…
Who shouldn’t take plecanatide
TRULANCE is contraindicated in: Patients less than 6 years of age due to the risk of serious dehydration [see Warnings and Precautions (5.1) , Use in Specific Populations (8.4) ] . Patients with known or suspected mechanical gastrointestinal obstruction. Patients less than 6 years of age due to the risk of serious dehydration. ( 4 , 5.1 , 8.4 ) Patients with known or suspected mechanical gastrointestinal obstruction. ( 4 )
Every plecanatide 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: Trulance.
What plecanatide pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
| Imprint | Strength | Colour | Shape | Maker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP;3 | 3 mg | white | round | — |
Can you crush or split plecanatide?
The plecanatide labels that address it permit crushing or splitting in the terms they state — quoted per product, because the instruction belongs to the form.
What each plecanatide label says about crushing, splitting and chewingPlecanatide and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for plecanatide: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadPlecanatide is not absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and the drug and its active metabolite are not measurable in milk following administration of recommended doses to nursing mothers. Plecanatide is not expected to cause any adverse effects in breastfed infants. No special precautions are required.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised February 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about plecanatide
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 55 reports naming plecanatide, and the FDA flagged 67% 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:
- nausea12 reports
- constipation10 reports
- headache9 reports
- rash9 reports
- diarrhoea8 reports
- dizziness7 reports
- fatigue7 reports
- illness7 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean plecanatide 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 section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 27, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is plecanatide?
Trulance (Plecanatide) is a medication used to treat Constipation.
Can you take plecanatide 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 plecanatide 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 plecanatide come in?
Across the brands we track, plecanatide is currently marketed as tablet, 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 plecanatide?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled plecanatide 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). Plecanatide: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/plecanatide
- MLA
- “Plecanatide: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/plecanatide.
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 plecanatide on DailyMed (NIH) ↗ — including its boxed warning in full.