Diovan Dosage/Direction for Use

Dosage Regimen: Adult Population: Hypertension: The recommended dose is 80 mg or 160 mg film-coated tablet once daily, irrespective of race, age, or gender. The antihypertensive effect is substantially present within 2 weeks and maximal effects are seen after 4 weeks. In patients whose blood pressure is not adequately controlled, the daily dose may be increased to 320 mg film-coated tablet, or a diuretic may be added.
Valsartan (Diovan) may also be administered with other antihypertensive agents.
Heart failure: The recommended starting dose is 40 mg film-coated tablet twice daily. Up-titration to 80 mg and 160 mg twice daily should be done to the highest dose tolerated by the patient. Consideration should be given to reducing the dose of concomitant diuretics. The maximum daily dose administered in clinical trials is 320 mg in divided doses.
Evaluation of patients with heart failure should always include assessment of renal function.
Post-myocardial infarction: Therapy may be initiated as early as 12 hours after a myocardial infarction. After an initial dose of 20 mg twice daily, valsartan therapy should be titrated to 40 mg, 80 mg, and 160 mg film-coated tablet twice daily over the next few weeks. The starting dose is provided by the 40 mg divisible tablet.
The target maximum dose is 160 mg twice daily. In general, it is recommended that patients achieve a dose level of 80 mg twice daily by two weeks after treatment initiation and that the target maximum dose be achieved by three months, based on the patient's tolerability to valsartan during titration. If symptomatic hypotension or renal dysfunction occurs, consideration should be given to a dosage reduction.
Valsartan may be used in patients treated with other post-myocardial infarction therapies, e.g. thrombolytics, acetylsalicylic acid, beta blockers or statins.
Evaluation of post-myocardial infarction patients should always include assessment of renal function.
Hypertensive adult patients with Impaired Glucose Tolerance at cardiovascular risk: The recommended starting is 80 or 160 mg film-coated tablet once daily. For those patients starting on 80 mg, up-titration to 160 mg once daily should be done, as tolerated by the patient. If hypertension remains uncontrolled, see Hypertension previously.
NOTE for all indications: No dosage adjustment is required for patients with renal impairment or for patients with hepatic impairment of non-biliary origin and without cholestasis.
Special populations: Pediatric population (Pediatric Hypertension): Children and adolescents 6-18 years of age: Film-coated tablet: The initial dose is a 40 mg tablet once daily for children and adolescents below 35 kg of weight and 80 mg once daily for those weighing 35 kg or more. The dose should be adjusted based on blood pressure response. For maximum doses studied in clinical trials please refer to Table 1 as follows.
Doses higher than those listed have not been studied and are therefore not recommended. (See Table 1.)

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Children less than 1 years of age: The safety and efficacy of valsartan (Diovan) in children less than 1 year of age have not been established. Children less than 1 year of age must not receive valsartan (Diovan).
Pediatric heart failure and recent myocardial infarction: Valsartan (Diovan) is not recommended for the treatment of heart failure or recent myocardial infarction in children and adolescents below the age of 18 years due to the lack of data on safety and efficacy.
Use in children and adolescents: The safety and efficacy of valsartan (Diovan) have not been established in children and adolescents (below the age of 18 years).
Method of administration: Valsartan (Diovan) may be taken independently of a meal and should be administered with water.