Telotristat Etiprate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Telotristat Etiprate is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand, for diarrhea and malignant carcinoid syndrome. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Diarrhea and Malignant Carcinoid Syndrome
- Available as
- Tablet
- Sold as
- Xermelo
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How telotristat etiprate is dosed
From the FDA label for Xermelo (application NDA208794). Other telotristat etiprate products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
The recommended dosage of Xermelo in adult patients is 250 mg three times daily for patients whose diarrhea is inadequately controlled by SSA therapy. Administration Take Xermelo with food [see Clinical Pharmacology ( 12.3 ), Clinical Studies ( 14 )] . When short-acting octreotide is used in combination with Xermelo, administer short-acting octreotide at least 30 minutes after administering Xermelo [see Drug Interactions ( 7.3 )] . If a dose is missed, take the next dose at the regular time. Do not take 2 doses at the same time to make up for a missed dose. Discontinue Xermelo if severe constipation develops [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 )]. The recommended dosage of Xermelo in adult patients is 250 mg three times daily for patients whose diarrhea is inadequately controlled by a SSA therapy. ( 2 ) Take Xermelo with food. ( 2 ) When short-acting octreotide is used in combination with Xermelo, administer short-acting octreotide at least 30 minutes after administering Xermelo. ( 2 , 7.3 ) Discontinue Xermelo if severe constipation develops. ( 2 , 5.1 )
Telotristat Etiprate side effects
Most common adverse reactions (≥5%) are nausea, headache, increased GGT, depression, flatulence, decreased appetite, peripheral edema, and pyrexia. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact TerSera Therapeutics LLC at 1-844-334-4035 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience 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. Xermelo was studied in a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 90 patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors and carcinoid syndrome diarrhea. Patients reported between 4 to 12 bowel movements daily despite the use of SSA therapy at a stable dose for at least 3 months [see Clinical Studies ( 14 )] . Placebo or Xermelo 250 mg was administered three times daily for 12 weeks. Concomitant anti-diarrheal medications (e.g., loperamide) were used by 43% (36% and 51% in the placebo and Xermelo group, respectively), pancreatic enzyme replacement medications by 39% (36% and 42% in the placebo and Xermelo group, respectively), and opioid analgesics by 29% (24% and 33% in the placebo and Xermelo group, respectively) of patients during the 12-week double-blind period of the trial. Table 1 below…
Who shouldn’t take telotristat etiprate
Xermelo is contraindicated in patients with a history of a hypersensitivity reaction to telotristat. Reactions have included angioedema, rash and pruritis. History of hypersensitivity to telotristat. ( 4 )
Telotristat Etiprate drug interactions
CYP3A4 Substrates (e.g., midazolam) and CYP2B6 Substrates (e.g., bupropion, efavirenz): Efficacy of concomitant drugs may be decreased; monitor patients’ response and consider increasing the dosage of the concomitant drug, if necessary. ( 7.1 ) 7.1 CYP3A4 Substrates Concomitant use of Xermelo may decrease the efficacy of drugs that are CYP3A4 substrates (e.g., midazolam) by decreasing their systemic exposure. Monitor patients’ response to CYP3A4 substrates when co-administered with Xermelo and consider increasing the dosage of the interacting drug, if necessary [see Clinical Pharmacology ( 12.3 )] . 7.2 CYP2B6 Substrates Concomitant use of Xermelo may decrease the efficacy of drugs that are CYP2B6 substrates (e.g., bupropion, efavirenz) by decreasing their systemic exposure. Monitor patients’ response to CYP2B6 substrates when co-administered with Xermelo and consider increasing the dosage of the interacting drug, if necessary [see Clinical Pharmacology ( 12.3 )] . 7.3 Short-Acting Octreotide Concurrent administration of short-acting octreotide with Xermelo significantly decreased the systemic exposure of telotristat ethyl and telotristat, the active metabolite. If treatment with short-acting octreotide is needed in combination with Xermelo, administer short-acting octreotide at least 30 minutes after administration of Xermelo [see Clinical Pharmacology ( 12.3 )] .
Every telotristat etiprate 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: Xermelo.
What people report to the FDA about telotristat etiprate
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 7 reports naming telotristat etiprate, and the FDA flagged 71% 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:
- decreased appetite3 reports
- fatigue3 reports
- blood pressure increased2 reports
- dry skin2 reports
- nausea2 reports
- weight decreased2 reports
- anal abscess1 reports
- anosmia1 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean telotristat etiprate 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 26, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is telotristat etiprate?
Xermelo (telotristat ethyl) tablets contain telotristat ethyl as telotristat etiprate, a tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor. Telotristat etiprate is the hippurate salt of telotristat ethyl [(S)-ethyl 2-amino-3-(4-(2-amino-6-((R)-1-(4-chloro-2-(3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)pyrimidin-4-yl)phenyl)propanoate], which undergoes hydrolysis to the active metabolite, (S)-2-amino-3-(4-(2-amino-6-((R)-1-(4-chloro-2-(3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)pyrimidin-4-yl)phenyl)propanoic acid.
Can you take telotristat etiprate 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 telotristat etiprate 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 telotristat etiprate come in?
Across the brands we track, telotristat etiprate 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 telotristat etiprate?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled telotristat etiprate 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). Telotristat Etiprate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/telotristat-etiprate
- MLA
- “Telotristat Etiprate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/telotristat-etiprate.
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 telotristat etiprate on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.