Butenafine
Butenafine is an antifungal ingredient used in topical creams to treat athlete's foot, jock itch, and ringworm.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 22 clinical label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
📖 Butenafine: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Butenafine — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Butenafine is used in topical creams to treat and relieve symptoms of common fungal skin infections. Here's what the supported products are approved for:
- Athlete's foot (between the toes): Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, and Butenafine Hydrochloride creams cure most athlete's foot between the toes. Note: effectiveness on the bottom or sides of the foot is not established.
- Jock itch: All supported products — Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, Butenafine Hydrochloride, Butenafine Hydrochloride 1%, Jock Itch, and Jock Itch Cream — cure most jock itch.
- Ringworm: Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, and Butenafine Hydrochloride creams cure most ringworm.
- Symptom relief: All products relieve the itching, burning, cracking, and scaling that come with these infections.
💊How it's taken▾
Butenafine cream is applied directly to the affected skin — not taken by mouth. Always wash the area with soap and water and dry it completely before applying. Wash your hands after every use.
- Athlete's foot (between the toes) — Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, Butenafine Hydrochloride: Apply twice a day (morning and night) for 1 week, or once a day for 4 weeks, or as directed by a doctor. Wear well-fitting, ventilated shoes and change shoes and socks at least once daily.
- Jock itch and ringworm — Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, Butenafine Hydrochloride: Apply once a day for 2 weeks, or as directed by a doctor.
- Jock itch — Jock Itch, Jock Itch Cream, Butenafine Hydrochloride 1%: Apply once a day for 2 weeks, or as directed by a doctor.
- Children under 12: ask a doctor before use.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Most people tolerate butenafine cream well when used as directed. Side effects that may occur at the application site include:
- Itching
- Burning
- Cracking of the skin
- Scaling of the skin
- Irritation
Stop using the cream and see a doctor if irritation becomes severe or gets worse during treatment. If the product contacts your eyes, rinse thoroughly with water immediately.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- External use only: Never use butenafine cream on nails, scalp, inside the mouth, near the eyes, or for vaginal yeast infections.
- Eye contact: If cream gets in your eyes, rinse thoroughly with water right away.
- Worsening irritation: Stop use and see a doctor if skin irritation increases or doesn't get better.
- Children: Not recommended for children under 12 without a doctor's guidance.
- Accidental swallowing: Keep out of reach of children. If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately.
🔀What it interacts with▾
No drug or substance interactions are identified in the available product labeling for butenafine topical cream.
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Children under 12 years old should not use these products without first asking a doctor.
- Do not use on nails or scalp.
- Do not use in or near the mouth or eyes.
- Do not use for vaginal yeast infections — this product is not approved for that purpose.
🚑If you take too much▾
If butenafine cream is swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.
📦How to store it▾
store between 20º to 25º C (68º to 77º F)
📄 Written from Butenafine’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Butenafine
20 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Butenafine in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 1
- Moderate · 7
- Minor · 12
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Butenafine — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What infections does butenafine cream actually treat? ▾
How long do I need to use it before it starts working? ▾
Can I put it anywhere on my body — like on my nails or scalp? ▾
What should I do if the cream gets in my eyes? ▾
Is it safe for my child to use butenafine cream? ▾
The skin where I'm applying it feels more irritated — should I be worried? ▾
Is Butenafine available over the counter? ▾
When was Butenafine first available? ▾
Who makes Butenafine? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Butenafine’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Butenafine comes
Butenafine is available in 1 form. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Topical cream, ointment or gel
How this form is used
- Athletes Foot, Athletes Foot Ultra, Butenafine Hydrochloride: cures most athlete's foot between the toes, most jock itch, and most ringworm; relieves itching, burning, cracking, and scaling
- Jock Itch and Jock Itch Cream: cures most jock itch and relieves itching, burning, cracking, and scaling
- Butenafine Hydrochloride 1%: cures most jock itch and relieves itching, burning, cracking, and scaling
- Athletes Foot and Butenafine Hydrochloride creams: wash and dry skin completely, break tube seal with cap tip, apply between and around toes twice a day for 1 week or once a day for 4 weeks for athlete's foot; apply once a day for 2 weeks for jock itch and ringworm; wash hands after each use
- Athletes Foot Ultra cream: same preparation and regimen as Athletes Foot — twice a day for 1 week or once a day for 4 weeks for athlete's foot; once a day for 2 weeks for jock itch and ringworm; wash hands after use
- Jock Itch, Jock Itch Cream, and Butenafine Hydrochloride 1% creams: wash and dry skin, break tube seal with cap tip, apply once a day to affected skin for 2 weeks or as directed by a doctor; wash hands after each use
- Children under 12 years: ask a doctor before use for all products
📊 Butenafine across the U.S. market
How Butenafine appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (2) — bulk drug substance sold to compounders/manufacturers and multi-item kits. These aren’t counted in the dose-form total above.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Butenafine is used
A general measure of how commonly Butenafine is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Butenafine is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Butenafine prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Butenafine ranks #1,192 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 25% of them.
Utilization by Butenafine product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
butenafine hydrochloride 10 MG/ML Topical Cream
Summed across the 2 of 39 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1298448
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Butenafine, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 2 of 39 listed Butenafine NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Butenafine products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Butenafine — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Topical cream, ointment or gel | ||||
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Albertsons × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Bayer HealthCare LLC. × 2 listings | NDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 1 g/100 g | Topical | Bayer Healthcare LLC. × 10 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | CVS Pharmacy × 6 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | H E B × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Kroger Company × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Meijer Distribution Inc × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. | NDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Rite Aid Corporation × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Strategic Sourcing Services Llc | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Target Corporation × 3 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Topco Associates Llc × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Wal-Mart Stores Inc × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Walgreen Company × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 10 mg/g | Topical | Yyba Corp × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 1 kg/kg | — | Erregierre SpA | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 1 kg/kg | — | Kaken Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 52 of 52 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 52 Butenafine NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Butenafine — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Butenafine in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Butenafine went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 47461 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Topical Cream RxCUI 377862In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) hydrochloride 10 MG/MLRxCUI 1298448
Look up RxCUI 47461 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Butenafine is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
RxNorm drug class
Butenafine belongs to the Benzylamine Antifungal class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 22 FDA-filed SPL label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
For canonical ingredient pages, bounded product-attributed indication and administration excerpts may be added to the AI evidence, and the generator is instructed to preserve available product, brand, route, and form qualifiers instead of treating one label as universal. Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Bayer Healthcare LLC. is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.