Absorption Nicotinic acid Following a 2000 mg dose of nicotinic acid administered orally as two modified-release tablets of nicotinic acid/ laropiprant with food, nicotinic acid was absorbed with a median time to peak plasma concentration (Tmax) of 4 hours, a mean area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC0-last) of approximately 58.0 μ M·hr and a mean peak plasma concentration (Cmax) of approximately 20.2 μ M.