Is Famotidine gluten free?

[Gloria L]

Hi everyone, since I really don't have much experience identifying gluten in medicine yet, I really need your help here, I'm gonna start taking famotidine, I contacted the pharmacy that manufactures it (Alembic) and they emailed me back this: "Thank you for your call and inquiry about Famotidine Tablet received at Alembic  Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Each famotidine tablet contains 20 mg of Famotidine and the following inactive ingredients: Colloidal silicon dioxide, yellow iron oxide and red iron oxide, Lecithin, macrogel/PEG 3350, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, pregelatinized starch, talc and titanium dioxide. Thank you for reading and for your help.

[Scott Adams]

A quick search here:

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/

Shows that the Walmart version contains "pregelatinized starch," which could be a concern:

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=15973213-0e11-4d18-b437-50b0a593cb7b

For questions there is a number to call: 1-888-287-1915.

Drugs.com says it is "usually" made from corn:

https://www.drugs.com/inactive/pregelatinized-starch-136.html

Other sites claim "Pregelatinized starch, sodium starch glycolate: derived from corn, potato, rice, or wheat but chemically processed so gluten remaining is unlikely."

[Gloria L]

Thanks Scott, since I wasn't sure I ended up getting the CVS brand. It has different inactive ingredients, although I'm concern for one of them because I'm lactose intolerant: "lactose monohydrate" and after reading the article you just posted about the little girl not getting better because of the dairy, I'm even more worried now.

[Scott Adams]

Here is more info on that ingredient, and I you may be able to do a workaround this by also taking an OTC enzyme like lactase whenever you take this pill:

https://www.drugs.com/inactive/lactose-monohydrate-368.html