4.1. Therapeutic indications

Lercanidipine Hydrochloride is indicated in adults for the treatment of mild to moderate essential hypertension.

4.2. Posology and method of administration

Posology

The recommended dosage is 10 mg orally once a day at least 15 minutes before meals; the dose may be increased to 20 mg depending on the individual patient's response.

Dose titration should be gradual, because it may take about 2 weeks before the maximal antihypertensive effect is apparent.

Some individuals, not adequately controlled on a single antihypertensive agent, may benefit from the addition of lercandipine to therapy with a beta-adrenoreceptor blocking drug (atenolol), a diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide) or an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (captopril or enalapril).

Since the dose-response curve is steep with a plateau at doses between 20-30 mg, it is unlikely that efficacy will be improved by higher doses; whereas side effects may increase.

Elderly patients

Although the pharmacokinetic data and clinical experience suggest that no adjustment of the daily dosage is required, special care should be exercised when initiating treatment in the elderly.

Paediatric population

The safety and efficacy in children and adolescents below the 18 years of age has not been established. No data are available.

Patients with renal or hepatic impairment

Special care should be exercised when treatment is commenced in patients with mild to moderate renal or hepatic dysfunction. Although the usually recommended dose schedule may be tolerated by these subgroups, an increase in dose to 20 mg daily must be approached with caution. The antihypertensive effect may be enhanced in patients with hepatic impairment and consequently an adjustment of the dosage should be considered.

Lercanidipine HCl is contraindicated in patients with severe hepatic impairment or in patients with severe renal impairment (GFR < 30 ml/min), including patients undergoing dialysis (see sections 4.3 and 4.4).

Method of administration

For oral use

Precautions to be taken before handling or administrating the medicinal product:

Treatment should be preferably administered in the morning at least 15 minutes before breakfast.

This product should not be administered with grapefruit juice (see section 4.3 and section 4.5)

4.3. Contraindications

- Hypersensitivity to the active substance, or to any of the excipients listed in section 6.1.

- Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction.

- Untreated congestive cardiac failure.

- Unstable angina pectoris or recent (within 1 month) myocardial infarction.

- Severe hepatic impairment.

- Severe renal impairment (GFR < 30 ml/min), including patients undergoing dialysis.

- Co-administration with:

- strong inhibitors of CYP3A4 (see section 4.5),

- cyclosporin (see section 4.5),

- grapefruit or grapefruit juice (see section 4.5).

4.4. Special warnings and precautions for use

Sick sinus syndrome

Lercanidipine should be administered with caution in patients with sick sinus syndrome (without pacemaker).

Left ventricular dysfunction

Although hemodynamic controlled studies revealed no impairment of ventricular function, care is also required in patients with left ventricular dysfunction.

Ischaemic heart disease

It has been suggested that some short-acting dihydropyridines may be associated with increased cardiovascular risk in patients with ischaemic heart disease. Although lercanidipine is long-acting caution is required in such patients.

Some dihydropyridines may rarely lead to precordial pain or angina pectoris. Very rarely patients with pre-existing angina pectoris may experience increased frequency, duration or severity of these attacks.

Isolated cases of myocardial infarction may be observed (see section 4.8).

Use in renal or hepaticimpairment:

Special care should be exercised when treatment is commenced in patients with mild to moderate renal impairment. Although the usual recommended dose schedule of 10 mg daily may be tolerated , an increase to 20 mg daily must be approached with caution. The antihypertensive effect may be enhanced in patients with moderate hepatic impairment and consequently an adjustment of the dosage should be considered.

Lercanidipine is contraindicated in patients with severe hepatic impairment or in patients with severe renal impairment (creatinine clearance < 30 ml/min) including patients undergoing haemodialysis (see section 4.2 and section 4.3).

Peritoneal Dialysis

Lercanidipine has been associated with the development of cloudy peritoneal effluent in patients on peritoneal dialysis. The turbidity is due to an increased triglyceride concentration in the peritoneal effluent. Whilst the mechanism is unknown, the turbidity tends to resolve soon after withdrawal of lercanidipine. This is an important association to recognise as cloudy peritoneal effluent can be mistaken for infective peritonitis with consequential unnecessary hospitalisation and empiric antibiotic administration.

Alcohol

Alcohol should be avoided since it may potentiate the effect of vasodilating antihypertensive drugs (see section 4.5).

CYP3A4 inducers

Inducers of CYP3A4 like anticonvulsants (e.g. phenytoin, carbamazepine) and rifampicin may reduce lercanidipine's plasma levels and therefore the efficacy of lercanidipine may be less than expected (see section 4.5).

Paediatric population

The safety and efficacy of lercanidipine HCl has not been demonstrated in children.

Excipients

This medicinal product contains lactose e. Patients with rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance, the total-lactase deficiency or glucose-galactose malabsorption should not take this medicine.

This medicine contains less than 1 mmol sodium (23 mg) per tablet, that is to say essentially 'sodium-free'.

4.5. Interaction with other medicinal products and other forms of interaction

Contraindications of concomitant use

CYP3A4 inhibitors

Lercanidipine is known to be metabolised by the CYP3A4 enzyme and therefore inhibitors of CYP3A4 administered concurrently may interact with the metabolism and elimination of lercanidipine. An interaction study with a strong CYP3A4 inhibitor, ketoconazole, has shown a considerable increase in plasma levels of lercanidipine (a 15-fold increase of the AUC and an 8-fold increase of the Cmax for the eutomer S- lercanidipine).

Co-administration of lercanidipine with inhibitors of CYP3A4 (e.g. ketoconazole, itraconazole, ritonavir, erythromycin, troleandomycin, clarithromycin) should be avoided (see section 4.3).

Ciclosporin

Increased plasma levels of both lercanidipine and ciclosporin have been observed following concomitant administration. A study in young healthy volunteers has shown that when ciclosporin was administered 3 hours after the lercanidipine intake, the plasma levels of lercanidipine did not change, while the AUC of ciclosporin increased by 27%. However, the co-administration of lercanidipine with ciclosporin has caused a 3-fold increase of the plasma levels of lercanidipine and a 21% increase of the ciclosporin AUC.

Ciclosporin and lercanidipine should not be administered together (see section 4.3).

Grapefruit or grapefruit juice

As for other dihydropyridines, lercanidipine is sensitive to inhibition of metabolism by grapefruit or grapefruit juice, with a consequent rise in its systemic availability and increased hypotensive effect. Lercanidipine should not be taken with grapefruit or grapefruit juice (see section 4.3).

Concomitant use not recommended

CYP3A4 inducers

Co-administration of lercanidipine with CYP3A4 inducers like anticonvulsants (e.g. phenytoin, phenobarbital, carbamazepine) and rifampicin should be approached with caution since the antihypertensive effect may be reduced and blood pressure should be monitored more frequently than usual (see section 4.4).

Alcohol

Alcohol should be avoided since it may potentiate the effect of vasodilating antihypertensive drugs (see section 4.4).

Precautions including dose adjustment

CYP3A4 substrates

Caution should be exercised when lercanidipine is co-prescribed with other substrates of CYP3A4, like terfenadine, astemizole, class III antiarrhythmic drugs such as amiodarone, quinidine, sotalol.

Midazolam

When concomitantly administered at a dose of 20 mg with midazolam p.o. to elderly volunteers, lercanidipine's absorption was increased (by approximately 40%) and the rate of absorption was decreased (tmax was delayed from 1.75 to 3 hours). Midazolam concentrations were not modified.

Metoprolol

When lercanidipine was co-administered with metoprolol, a β-blocker eliminated mainly by the liver, the bioavailability of metoprolol was not changed while that of lercanidipine was reduced by 50%. This effect may be due to the reduction in the hepatic blood flow caused by β-blockers and may therefore occur with other drugs of this class. Consequently, lercanidipine may be safely administered with beta- adrenoceptor blocking drugs, but dose adjustment may be required.

Digoxin

Co-administration of 20 mg lercanidipine in patients chronically treated with β-methyldigoxin showed no evidence of pharmacokinetic interaction. However, a mean increase of 33% in digoxin Cmax was observed, while AUC and renal clearance were not significantly modified. Patients on concomitant digoxin treatment should be closely monitored clinically for signs of digoxin toxicity.

Concomitant use with other drugs

Fluoxetine

An interaction study with fluoxetine (an inhibitor of CYP2D6 and CYP3A4), conducted in volunteers of an age of 65 ± 7 years (mean ± s.d.), has shown no clinically relevant modification of the pharmacokinetics of lercanidipine.

Cimetidine

Concomitant administration of cimetidine 800 mg daily does not cause significant modifications in plasma levels of lercanidipine, but at higher doses caution is required since the bioavailability and the hypotensive effect of lercanidipine may be increased.

Simvastatin

When a dose of 20 mg of lercanidipine was repeatedly co-administered with 40 mg of simvastatin, the AUC of lercanidipine was not significantly modified, while simvastatin's AUC increased by 56% and that of its active metabolite β-hydroxyacid by 28%. It is unlikely that such changes are of clinical relevance. No interaction is expected when lercanidipine is administered in the morning and simvastatin in the evening, as indicated for such drug.

Warfarin

The co-administration of 20 mg lercanidipine to healthy volunteers given fasted did not alter the pharmacokinetics of warfarin.

Diuretics and ACE inhibitors

Lercanidipine has been safely administered with diuretics and ACE inhibitors.

Other medications affecting blood pressure

As for all antihypertensive medications, an increased hypotensive effect may be observed when lercanidipine is administered with other medications affecting blood pressure, such as alphablockers for the treatment of urinary symptoms, tricyclic antidepressants, neuroleptics. On the contrary, a reduction of the hypotensive effect may be observed with a concomitant use with corticosteroids.

4.6. Fertility, pregnancy and lactation

Pregnancy

There are no adequate data from the use of lercanidipine in pregnant women. Studies in animals have not shown teratogenic effects (see section 5.3), but these have been observed with other dihydropyridine compounds. Lercanidipine is not recommended during pregnancy and in women of childbearing-potential not using contraception

Breast-feeding

It is unknown whether lercanidipine/metabolites are excreted in human milk. A risk in the newborns /infants cannot be excluded. Lercaindipine should not be used during breast-feeding

Fertility

No clinical data are available with lercanidipine. Reversible biochemical changes in the head of spermatozoa which can impair fecundation have been reported in some patients treated by channel blockers. In cases where repeated in-vitro fertilisation is unsuccessful and where another explanation cannot be found, the possibility of calcium channel blockers as the cause should be considered.

4.7. Effects on ability to drive and use machines

Lercanidipine has minor influence on the ability to drive and use machines. However, caution should be exercised because dizziness, asthenia, fatigue and rarely somnolence may occur.

4.8. Undesirable effects

Summary of safety profile

The safety of lercanidipine at a dose of 10-20 mg once daily has been evaluated in double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (with 1200 patients receiving lercanidipine and 603 patients receiving placebo) and in active-controlled and uncontrolled long term clinical trials on a total of 3676 hypertensive patients receiving lercanidipine.

The most commonly reported adverse reactions in clinical trials and in the post-marketing experience are: peripheral oedema, headache, flushing, tachycardia and palpitations.

Tabulated list of adverse reactions

In the table below, adverse reactions reported in clinical trials and in the worldwide post-marketing experience for which a reasonable causal relationship exists are listed by MedDRA system organ class class and frequency: very common (≥1/10); common (≥1/100 to <1/10); uncommon (≥1/1,000 to <1/100); rare (≥1/10,000 to <1/1,000); very rare (<1/10,000), not known (cannot be estimated from available data). Within each frequency grouping the observed adverse reactions are presented in order of decreasing seriousness.

MedDRA

System Organ Class

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Not known

Immune system Disorders

Hypersensitivity

Nervous system Disorders

Headache

dizziness

Somnolence, Syncope

Cardiac Disorders

Tachycardia, palpitations

Angina pectoris

Vascular disorders

Flushing

Hypotension

Gastrointestinal Disorders

Nausea, Dyspepsia, Abdominal pain upper

Diarrhoea, Vomiting

Gingival hypertrophy1

Peritoneal cloudy effluent1

Hepatobiliary disorders

Serum transaminase increased1

Skin and subcutaneous Tissue Disorders

Rash,

Pruritus

Urticaria

Angioedema1

Musculoskeletal, connective tissue and Bone Disorders

Myalgia

Renal and Urinary Disorders

Polyuria

Pollakiuria

General Disorders and Administration Site Disorders

Oedema peripheral

Asthenia, fatigue

Chest pain

1adverse reactions from spontaneous reporting in the worldwide post-marketing experience

Description of selected adverse reactions

In placebo controlled clinical trials the incidence of peripheral oedema was 0.9% with lercanidipine 10-20 mg and 0.83% with placebo. This frequency reached 2% in the overall study population including long term clinical trials.

Lercanidipine does not appear to influence adversely blood sugar or serum lipid levels.

Some dihydropyridines may rarely lead to precordial pain or angina pectoris. Very rarely patients with pre-existing angina pectoris may experience increased frequency, duration or severity of these attacks. Isolated cases of myocardial infarction may be observed.

Reporting of suspected adverse reactions

Reporting suspected adverse reactions after authorisation of the medicinal product is important. It allows continued monitoring of the benefit/risk balance of the medicinal product. Healthcare professionals are asked to report any suspected adverse reactions via the Yellow Card Scheme: www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard

4.9. Overdose

In the post-marketing experience of lercanidipine, some cases of overdose have been reported ranging from 30-40 mg up to 800 mg , including reports of suicide attempt.

Symptoms

As with other dihydropyridines, lercanidipine over dosage results in excessive peripheral vasodilatation with marked hypotension and reflex tachycardia. However, at very high doses, the peripheral selectivity may be lost, causing bradycardia and a negative inotropic effect. The most common ADRs associated to cases of overdose have been hypotension, dizziness, headache and palpitations.

Treatment

Clinically significant hypotension requires active cardiovascular support including frequent monitoring of cardiac and respiratory function, elevation of extremities and attention to circulating fluid volume and urine output. In view of the prolonged pharmacological effect of lercanidipine, it is essential that the cardiovascular status of the patient is monitored for 24 hours at least. Since the product has a high protein binding, dialysis is not likely to be effective. Patients in whom a moderate to severe intoxication is anticipated should be observed in a high-care setting.