Eflornithine 11.5% cream
Requires a prescription from a doctor or prescriber
Shampoos and other preparations for scalp and hair conditions
Safety information for pregnancy and breastfeeding
Pregnancy
Always consult your doctor or midwife before taking any medicine during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Source: DrugBank (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Official medicine documents
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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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Eflornithine
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Report a side effect
Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA
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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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Eflornithine
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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.
5 branded products available
MHRA licensed products
View all licensed products for Eflornithine on the MHRA register
Vaniqa 11.5% cream
This is the NHS Drug Tariff indicative price used for reimbursement purposes. It may not reflect the price paid by patients or pharmacies.
View full Drug TariffSource: NHS Drug Tariff via NHSBSA. Derived from dm+d VMPP (Virtual Medicinal Product Pack) pricing data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and NHS BNF section grouping. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Clinical guidelines and formulary information
British National Formulary
Eflornithine
Source: British National Formulary, NICE. Joint Formulary Committee. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 & product information
Official product databases and supply status monitoring
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. emc (electronic medicines compendium) is operated by Datapharm Ltd. Shortage information sourced from NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS), sps.nhs.uk.
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 codes from NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). 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.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
3.5 hours
Mechanism
Eflornithine is an irreversible inhibitor of the enzyme ornithine decarboxylase…
Food interactions
1 warning
Human targets
1 target
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
3.5 hours
Half-life
3.5 hours
Protein binding
[L49288]
Volume of distribution
24.3 L
[L49288]
Metabolism
[L49298]
Elimination
[L49298]
Clearance
5.3 L/h
[L49298]
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
In 1960 and 2000, the FDA approved eflornithine under the brand names ORNIDYL and VANIQUA for the treatment of African trypanosomiasis and hirsutism, respectively, but has since been discontinued.[A262823][L49318] Subsequently, on December 14, 2023, the FDA approved eflornithine again but under the brand name IWILFIN as an oral maintenance therapy to reduce the risk of relapse in adult and pediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma who have demonstrated at least a partial response to prior multiagent, multimodality therapy, including anti-GD2 immunotherapy. This approval is based on positive results obtained from a multi-site, single-arm, externally controlled study of children with high-risk neuroblastoma, where a 52% reduction in the risk of relapse and a 68% reduction in the risk of death were observed.[L49313]
[L49288]
It was also previously indicated for the treatment of female hirsutism and African trypanosomiasis but has since been discontinued.
[L49318]
Known interactions with other medications. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 38 of 38 interactions
Advise pregnant women and females of reproductive potential of the potential risk to a fetus.
[L49298]
In a 2-year carcinogenicity study, once daily oral administration of eflornithine to female rats did not result in drug-related neoplasms at doses up to 600 mg/kg/day (10.5 times the human Cmax at the recommended clinical dose of 1152 ± 384 mg/m2).
[L49298]
Eflornithine was not mutagenic in the in vitro bacterial reverse mutation (Ames) assay.
[L49298]
Dedicated fertility studies were not conducted with eflornithine.
[L49298]
Additionally, polyamines are also involved in keratin synthesis, and inhibition of polyamines can decrease the proliferation of hair matrix cells and thus inhibit the anagen phase of hair production.[A4113]
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
[L49288]
The mean percutaneous absorption of eflornithine in women with unwanted facial hair, from a 13.9% w/w cream formulation, is < 1% of the radioactive dose, following either single or multiple doses under conditions of clinical use, that included shaving within 2 hours before radiolabeled dose application in addition to other forms of cutting or plucking and tweezing to remove facial hair.
Steady state was reached within four days of twice-daily application. Following twice-daily application of 0.5 g of the cream (total dose 1.0 g/day; 139 mg as anhydrous eflornithine hydrochloride), under conditions of clinical use in women with unwanted facial hair (n=10), the steady-state Cmax, Ctrough and AUC12hr were approximately 10 ng/mL, 5 ng/mL, and 92 ng hr/mL, respectively, expressed in terms of the anhydrous free base of eflornithine hydrochloride. At steady state, the dose-normalized peak concentrations (Cmax) and the extent of daily systemic exposure (AUC) of eflornithine following twice-daily application of 0.5 g of the cream (total dose 1.0 g/day) is estimated to be approximately 100- and 60-fold lower, respectively, when compared to 370 mg/day once-daily oral doses.
[L49298]
[L49298][L49298]
[L49288]
[L49288]
[L49298]
[L49298]
[L49298]
Proteins and enzymes this drug interacts with in the body
ATC P01CX03
ATC L01XX79
ATC D11AX16
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Show
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Eflornithine
Additional database identifiers
Drugs Product Database (DPD)
12187
ChemSpider
2902
BindingDB
50028197
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:8109
GenAtlas
ODC1
GeneCards
ODC1
GenBank Gene Database
M16650
GenBank Protein Database
29893806
Guide to Pharmacology
1276
UniProt Accession
DCOR_HUMAN
Patent information
All patents expired, 3 expired
Source: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0. Patent data sourced from national patent offices. Expiry dates may not reflect extensions, regulatory exclusivity periods, or legal challenges.
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite the following publications: