Who Makes Zyrtec?
Zyrtec is made by Kenvue Inc. in the United States and by UCB S.A. elsewhere. Cetirizine was discovered by UCB researchers in Belgium in the 1980s.
Quick Answer
In the United States, Zyrtec is made by Kenvue Inc., the Johnson & Johnson consumer health spin-off. Outside the US, Zyrtec is manufactured and marketed by UCB S.A., the Belgian biopharma that discovered cetirizine in the 1980s.
Kenvue licensed US OTC rights from Pfizer, which had held them since 2006 when Pfizer bought them from UCB. Manufacturing happens at McNeil facilities in Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico for the US market and at UCB plants in Belgium and Switzerland for the rest of the world.
The Parent Companies
Kenvue is the US owner. It is a $15 billion revenue consumer health company spun off from Johnson & Johnson in August 2023, headquartered in Skillman, New Jersey.
UCB S.A. is the global owner outside the US. It is a Belgian biopharma with roughly $5 billion in revenue and is best known for prescription drugs like Cimzia (rheumatology), Vimpat (epilepsy) and Bimzelx (dermatology). Cetirizine, sold as Zyrtec, is UCB's biggest consumer product.
How Zyrtec Started
Cetirizine was developed by UCB researchers in Belgium in the early 1980s as a second generation antihistamine that would not cross the blood brain barrier much (which is why it is less sedating than older drugs like Benadryl).
Zyrtec was approved by the FDA as a prescription drug in 1995. It moved to over the counter status in the United States in November 2007 after McNeil Consumer Healthcare (then part of Johnson & Johnson) licensed the US OTC rights from Pfizer.
Where Zyrtec Is Made
US OTC Zyrtec is manufactured at Kenvue's McNeil facilities in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania and Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. Zyrtec-D (with pseudoephedrine) is made at Las Piedras.
European and rest of world Zyrtec is manufactured by UCB in Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium and by contract manufacturing partners in Switzerland and Poland.
Cetirizine active pharmaceutical ingredient is sourced from multiple suppliers including Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla and Sun Pharma in India.
How Zyrtec Compares To Rivals
The three big over the counter allergy pills in the United States are Zyrtec (cetirizine, Kenvue), Claritin (loratadine, Bayer) and Allegra (fexofenadine, Sanofi). Xyzal (levocetirizine, Sanofi in the US) is the enantiomer of cetirizine and works on the same receptor.
Cetirizine is generally considered the strongest of the three second generation antihistamines but also the most likely to cause drowsiness. Loratadine causes the least drowsiness. Fexofenadine sits in the middle.
All three are available as inexpensive store brand generics. A month of generic cetirizine typically costs a dollar or two per box.
The Zyrtec Withdrawal Question
Long term daily use of cetirizine (and levocetirizine) has been associated with intense itching after stopping the drug, sometimes lasting weeks. The FDA added a warning to the OTC label about this in 2019.
Kenvue and UCB both acknowledge the itching issue in patient information. The mechanism is not fully understood but is thought to involve rebound histamine release.
How To Trace Any Product Back To Its Manufacturer
- Read the fine print on the label. US and EU packaging law requires either the manufacturer name or a "distributed by" address. That is your starting point.
- Search the company's SEC filings. Public parent companies list subsidiaries and manufacturing sites in their 10-K annual reports.
- Check the FDA or USDA establishment number. For food, drugs and cosmetics, the plant of origin can often be looked up in public regulatory databases.
- Follow the money. Press releases about acquisitions and joint ventures are the fastest way to spot who really controls a brand today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Zyrtec the same as cetirizine? Yes. Zyrtec is the brand name for cetirizine hydrochloride. Any generic 10 milligram cetirizine tablet is chemically identical.
Is Zyrtec still owned by Johnson & Johnson? No. Zyrtec US moved to Kenvue in the August 2023 spin-off.
Where is Zyrtec manufactured for the US market? Kenvue McNeil facilities in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania and Las Piedras, Puerto Rico.
Is Xyzal made by the same company as Zyrtec? No. In the US, Xyzal is sold by Sanofi. Zyrtec OTC is sold by Kenvue. Both drugs are related (levocetirizine is the active enantiomer of cetirizine).
What This Means For The Shopper
When you understand who actually makes Zyrtec, a few practical shopping habits fall into place. First, corporate ownership tells you where product safety recalls and reformulations come from. Second, it tells you which store brand alternatives are chemically or functionally equivalent, because generic makers usually target the same reference product. Third, it explains pricing behavior: brands owned by big consumer conglomerates rarely drop below a floor price for long, because that floor protects a very large marketing and distribution investment.
Corporate ownership also shifts over time. The same brand you grew up with may be on its third or fourth parent company. That is why any answer to "who makes Zyrtec" should be dated. The current parent listed on the label today is the one legally responsible for the product, regardless of the packaging design or advertising campaign you remember from years ago.
If you want to double check, the fastest confirmation is the label itself. Look for the "Distributed by" or "Manufactured by" line in the fine print. The company name and city on that line is the current legal manufacturer or distributor of Zyrtec for your market, and that is the entity you would contact for a product complaint, safety concern or ingredient question.
What To Watch Going Forward
Consumer packaged goods ownership keeps consolidating. In the last five years alone, several major consumer health and beverage brands have moved between parent companies through spin-offs, sales and joint ventures. Expect more of the same over the next five years, especially as private equity and family holding companies continue to reshape mid-cap consumer brands.
If you buy Zyrtec regularly and care about who profits from your purchase, it is worth checking the label every year or two. Ownership changes are usually announced in trade press but rarely make consumer headlines, so most shoppers miss them until the packaging gets a subtle redesign to reflect the new parent company.
Bottom Line
Zyrtec is a Kenvue brand in the US and a UCB brand elsewhere, based on cetirizine that UCB discovered in Belgium in the 1980s. The generic version is the same medicine and costs a fraction of the branded price.