Penciclovir 1% cream
Penciclovir is a synthetic acyclic guanine derivative with antiviral activity used for the treatment of various herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections.
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Official medicine documents
Yellow Card
Report side effects (MHRA)
Drug safety updates
MHRA alerts for Penciclovir
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 Penciclovir
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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.
View EudraVigilance report
Suspected adverse reactions reported for Penciclovir
About EudraVigilance
Learn about EU pharmacovigilance and safety monitoring
EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
3 branded products available
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. 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: 7 · Randomised trials: 5 · 1989–2026
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
S. Spruance, T. Rea, C. Thoming, et al.
JAMA, 1997
T. Bacon, M. Levin, J. Leary, et al.
Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 2003
R. Hodge
Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy, 1993
R. Alexander
Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 1997
M. R. Boyd, S. Safrin, E. Kern
Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy, 1993
Qingzhi Lv, A. Yu, Yanwei Xi, et al.
International journal of pharmaceutics, 2009
D. Earnshaw, T. Bacon, S. J. Darlison, et al.
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 1992
R. Hodge, D. Sutton, R. Malcolm, et al.
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 1989
R. Boon, J. Goodman, Juan Martínez, et al.
Clinical therapeutics, 2000
Lin Lin, Xs Chen, Pangenjieyi Cui, et al.
Journal of Dermatological Treatment, 2002
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
2 hours
Mechanism
Penciclovir has in vitro activity against herpes simplex virus types 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2).
Food interactions
None known
Human targets
1 target
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
1%
Half-life
2 hours
Protein binding
20%
Metabolism
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Known interactions with other medicines. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 50 of 327 interactions
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
Proteins and enzymes this drug interacts with in the body
PMID:9575153
Catalyzes the first enzymatic step in the salvage pathway converting thymidine into thymidine monophosphate .
PMID:22385435
Transcriptional regulation limits expression to the S phase of the cell cycle and transient expression coincides with the oscillation in the intracellular dTTP concentration (Probable). Also important for the activation of anticancer and antiviral nucleoside analog prodrugs such as 1-b-d-arabinofuranosylcytosine (AraC) and 3c-azido-3c-deoxythymidine (AZT) PMID:22385435
ATC D06BB06
ATC J05AB13
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)
Penciclovir
Additional database identifiers
Drugs Product Database (DPD)
11798
ChemSpider
4563
BindingDB
50210804
PDB
PE2
ZINC
ZINC000000001899
GenBank Gene Database
X14112
GenBank Protein Database
59530
UniProt Accession
DPOL_HHV11
GenBank Gene Database
J02224
GenBank Protein Database
330210
UniProt Accession
KITH_HHV1C
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:11830
GenAtlas
TK1
GeneCards
TK1
GenBank Gene Database
K02581
GenBank Protein Database
339709
UniProt Accession
KITH_HUMAN
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite:
- DrugBank 6.02024Recommended citationKnox C., Wilson M., Klinger C.M., et alDrugBank 6.0: the DrugBank Knowledgebase for 2024Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Jan 552(D1):D1265-D1275
- DrugBank 5.02018Wishart D.S., Feunang Y.D., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank 5.0: a major update to the DrugBank database for 2018Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Nov 846(D1):D1074-D1082
- DrugBank 4.02014Law V., Knox C., Djoumbou Y., et alDrugBank 4.0: shedding new light on drug metabolismNucleic Acids Res. 2014 Jan 142(1):D1091-7
- DrugBank 3.02011Knox C., Law V., Jewison T., et alDrugBank 3.0: a comprehensive resource for 'omics' research on drugsNucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan39(Database issue):D1035-41
- DrugBank 2.02008Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a knowledgebase for drugs, drug actions and drug targets.Nucleic Acids Research2008 Jan36(Database issue):D901-6
- DrugBank 1.02006Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a comprehensive resource for in silico drug discovery and exploration.Nucleic Acids Research2006 Jan 134(Database issue):D668-72