Rifampicin and rifapentine have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is impossible to judge which one is better. The advantages of rifampicin are that it is cheap and can be used in the treatment of tuberculous meningitis; the advantages of rifapentine are that it is strong and has relatively few side effects, so you can make an all-around comparison between the two in terms of price, ease of use, therapeutic efficacy, side effects, and so on.
1. Price: Rifampicin is an early anti-tuberculosis drug, belonging to the first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs, the price is relatively cheap, rifapentine price is more expensive than rifampicin.
2. Convenience of use: Rifapentine has some advantages in use, and it is taken only once a week. But rifampicin is not necessarily.
3. Efficacy: rifapentine has certain advantages, it has a strong anti-tuberculosis effect, is several times the effect of rifampicin, but patients with tuberculous meningitis can not use rifapentine, because rifapentine can not cross the blood-brain barrier, rifampicin is still effective against tuberculous meningitis.
4. Side effects: there are cross allergies between the two, rifapentine has relatively fewer adverse reactions, rifampicin is more likely to vomit, nausea and other adverse reactions.
The choice between rifampicin and rifapentine needs to be decided by clinicians on a case-by-case basis.