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Felodipine is a medication of the calcium channel blocker type that is used to treat high blood pressure.
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It was patented in 1978, and approved for medical use in 1988.
Medical uses
Felodipine is used to treat high blood pressure and stable angina.
It should not be used for people who are pregnant, have acute heart failure, are having a heart attack, have an obstructed heart valve, or have obstructions that block bloodflow out of the heart.
CYP3A4 activators, which decrease the amount of felodipine available per dose, include phenytoin, carbamazepine, rifampicin, barbiturates, efavirenz, nevirapine, and Saint John's wort.
Different calcium channels are present in vascular tissue and cardiac tissue; an in vitro study on human vascular and cardiac tissues comparing how selective various calcium channel blockers are for vascular compared to cardiac tissue found the following vascular/cardiac tissue ratios: mibefradil 41, felodipine 12; nifedipine 7, amlodipine 5, and verapamil 0.2. It is a racemic mixture, and is insoluble in water but is soluble in dichloromethane and ethanol. Astra partnered this drug and others with Merck & Co. in the US under a 1982 agreement between the companies. The drug was approved by the FDA in 1991 after a three-and-a-half-year review; the drug entered a very crowded market to included the other calcium channel blockers nifedipine, verapamil, nicardipine, and isradipine. and in 1998 Astra (by that time, AstraZeneca) bought out Merck's rights in the joint venture.
The first generics became available in Sweden in 2003 and in the US in 2004.
In April 2016, AstraZeneca announced that they were selling the right to market felodipine in China to China Medical System Holdings for $310 million; AZ would continue to manufacture the drug.
Society and culture
As of 2016, felodipine was marketed under many brand names worldwide: Auronal, Cardioplen, Catrazil, Dewei, Dilahex, Enfelo, Erding, Fedil, Fedisyn, Feldil, Felicipin, Felo, Felocard, Felocor, Feloday, Felodil, Felodin, Felodip, Felodipin, Felodipina, Felodipine, Felodipino, Felodistad, Felogard, Felohexal, Felop, Felopine, Felostad, Feloten, Felotens, Felpin, Flodicar, Flodil, Keliping, Keydipin, Lodistad, Modip, Munobal, Nirmadil, Parmid, Penedil, Perfudal, Phelop, Phenodical, Plendil, Plentopine, Polo, Presid, Preslow, Prevex, Renedil, Sistar, Splendil, Stapin, Topidil, Vascalpha, Versant, and XiaoDing.
The combination of felodipine and candesartan was marketed as Atacand.