Table 4.

Characteristics of different intravenous iron formulations available in the UK.

	Ferric carboxymaltose	Iron isomaltoside	Iron (III) hydroxide sucrose	Iron (III) hydroxide dextran
Brand name	Ferinject®	Monofer®	Venofer®	CosmoFer®
Iron content, mg/mL	50	100	20	50
Labile iron (% injected dose)	0.6	1.0	3.5	3.5
Route of administration	Intravenous, slow infusion	Intravenous, slow infusion	Intravenous, slow infusion	Intravenous, slow infusion; intramuscular (gluteal)
Test dose required	No	No	First dose for new patients	Yes, before every dose
Maximal single dose	20 mg/kg diluted in 100 mL 0.9% saline. Maximum weekly dose of 1000 mg	20 mg/kg diluted in maximum 500 mL 0.9% saline	200 mg, can be repeated up to three times in 1 week	20 mg/kg, diluted in maximum 500 mL 0.9% saline or 5% glucose
Half-life	7–12 h	5 h	6 h	20 h
Infusion time, minimum	15 min	15 min, Doses greater than 1000 mg should be administered over greater than 30 min	30 min	Over 4–6 h
Use in pregnancy	Avoid in first trimester	Avoid in first trimester	Avoid in first trimester	Avoid in first trimester
Lactation	Less than 1% iron passed into breastmilk; doubtful clinical significance	Low transfer into breastmilk; doubtful clinical significance	No available data	No available data
Adverse drug reactions	Common: nausea (2.9%) headache, dizziness, injection site reactions, transient hypophosphataemia	Common: nausea, injection site reactions	Common: nausea, injection site reactions, hypotension, hypertension	Approximately 5% will experience dose-dependent adverse reactions
Anaphylactic reactions	Rare (≥1/10,000 to <1/1000)	Rare (≥1/10,000 to <1/1000)	Rare (≥1/10,000 to <1/1000)	Rare (≥1/10,000 to <1/1000)
Product cost per 1000 mg, NHS indicative price as per BNF, £	154.23	169.50	109.09	159.40

BNF: British National Formulary; NHS: UK National Health Service.