Acetyl-L-carnitine 500mg tablets
Requires a prescription from a doctor or prescriber
Acetylcarnitine is an investigational drug in the United states, Italy, United Kingdom, China, Israel, and Norway, and it is approved in Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Philippines, Australia, and India.
Shortage warning
Current supply issues
High shortage warning
Healthcare professionals should be aware of the potential for delayed onset of angioedema and the distinction between bradykinin- and histamine-mediated cases, as treatment strategies differ significantly and bradykinin-medi…
Affected areas: UK
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Safety monitoring data
Yellow Card reports
The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.
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Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
EudraVigilance
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) collects suspected adverse reaction reports from across the EU/EEA through the EudraVigilance system. Search for safety data on this medicine.
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EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
2 branded products available
WHO defined daily dose (DDD)
2 gram
Not a recommended dose. The DDD is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. It is a statistical measure used for research and comparison purposes only.
Source: WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology, distributed via the NHS dm+d supplementary BNF/ATC mapping files (NHSBSA). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Check stock at pharmacies and supply information
Pharmacy stock checkers
Search for this medicine at major UK pharmacy chains. These links open the retailer's own website — results depend on their current online catalogue.
Supply & safety information
Official UK regulator monitoring and safety alerts
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.
NHS UK identifiers
Browse tools
SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. BNF code shown is the factual mapping value distributed by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in the dm+d supplementary file under OGL v3.0; it is not affiliated with, nor licensed from, the publishers of the British National Formulary. ATC codes from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology (whocc.no).
Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance
Showing the 50 most relevant studies.
Reviews & meta-analyses: 21 · Randomised trials: 17 · 1991–2026
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
Stuart Montgomery, L. J. Thal, R. Amrein
International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2003
Andrea Lenzi, Paolo Sgrò, Paola Salacone, et al.
Fertility and Sterility, 2004
- Acetylcarnitine
- Carnitine
- Oligospermia
Dawn L. Hershman, Joseph M. Unger, Katherine D. Crew, et al.
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2013
- Acetylcarnitine
- Breast Neoplasms
Nicola Veronese, Brendon Stubbs, Marco Solmi, et al.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 2017
- Dietary Supplements
- Acetylcarnitine
- Antidepressive Agents
Gustavo C. Ferreira, Mary C. McKenna
Neurochemical Research, 2017
- Neuroprotection
- Acetylcarnitine
- Brain
Valentina Tomassini, Carlo Pozzilli, Emanuela Onesti, et al.
Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 2003
- Acetylcarnitine
- Amantadine
- Analysis of Variance
Giulia Di Stefano, Andrea Di Lionardo, Eleonora Galosi, et al.
Journal of Pain Research, 2019
Pourshahidi S, Shamshiri AR, Derakhshan S, et al.
2023
- Acetylcarnitine
- Peripheral Nerve Injuries
- Sciatic Nerve
Momenzadeh M, Aria A, Ghadimi K, et al.
2023
Background and purposePeripheral neuropathy is one of the most prevalent and undesirable side effects of taxane-containing chemotherapy regimens. This study aimed to investigate the effect of acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) on the prevention of taxane-induced neuropathy (TIN).Experimental approachMEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, and Google scholar were systemically applied as electronic databases from 2010 to 2019. The current systematic review was carried out based on the main considerations of PRISMA preferential reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses. Since there was no significant discrepancy, the random-effect model was used for 12-24 weeks' analysis (I2 = 0%, P = 0.999).Findings/resultsTwelve related titles and abstracts were found during the search, 6 of them were excluded in the first phase. In the second phase, the full text of the remaining 6 articles was comprehensively evaluated and 3 papers were rejected. Finally, 3 articles complied with the inclusion criteria and pooled analyses. The meta-analysis showed a risk ratio of 0.796 (95% CI between 0.486 and 1.303), so, the effects model was used for 12-24 weeks' analysis (I2 = 0%, P = 0.999) since no significant discrepancies were observed. There was no evidence of ALC's positive effect on the prevention of TIN during 12 weeks, and it was revealed that ALC significantly increased TIN in 24 weeks.Conclusion and implicationsAccording to our findings, the hypothesis that ALC had a positive effect on preventing TIN in 12 weeks has not been proved; however, ALC led to an increase in the TIN in 24 weeks.
Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Yazan Ranneh, Mohammed Hamsho, Abdulmannan Fadel, et al.
Reproduction and Breeding, 2025
Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
Not available
Mechanism
The mechanisms of action of acetylcarnitine have not been fully elucidated, but…
Food interactions
None known
Human targets
None mapped
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
Elimination
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
Proteins that transport this drug across cell membranes
PMID:10454528 PMID:10525100 PMID:10966938 PMID:17509700 PMID:20722056 PMID:33124720
Also transports organic cations such as tetraethylammonium (TEA) without the involvement of sodium.
Relative uptake activity ratio of carnitine to TEA is 11.3 .
PMID:10454528 PMID:10525100 PMID:10966938
In intestinal epithelia, transports the quorum-sensing pentapeptide CSF (competence and sporulation factor) from B.subtilis which induces cytoprotective heat shock proteins contributing to intestinal homeostasis .
PMID:18005709
May also contribute to regulate the transport of organic compounds in testis across the blood-testis-barrier (Probable)
ATC N06BX12
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
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Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Acetylcarnitine
Matched from: Acetyl-L-carnitine
Additional database identifiers
ChemSpider
5406074
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:10969
GenAtlas
SLC22A5
GeneCards
SLC22A5
GenBank Gene Database
AF057164
GenBank Protein Database
3273741
UniProt Accession
S22A5_HUMAN
UniProt Accession
S22AL_MOUSE
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite the following publications:
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Structured knowledge from the free knowledge base
ATC classifications (Wikidata)
Linked open data from Wikidata (Q243309), a free and open knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Data is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.