Docosanol

Docosanol on the U.S. market: products, makers and brands

How Docosanol 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.

41 companies list 73 Docosanol product records with the FDA, mostly as topical cream, ointment or gel; the earliest marketing or approval year on record is 2000. Brand names on the directory include Abreva, Cold Sore Fever Blister Treatment, Cold Sore Treatment and 4 more; the rest are generics.

Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (5) — 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 Docosanol is used (Medicaid data)

A general measure of how commonly Docosanol 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 Docosanol 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 Docosanol prescribed? Of the 1,601 medications we measure, Docosanol ranks #1,062 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 34% of them.

Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Docosanol, 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 6 of 117 listed Docosanol NDCs with Medicaid activity.

Compare Docosanol products

A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Docosanol — 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.)

Showing 73 of 73 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 73 Docosanol NDCs →

Docosanol brand names

Docosanol is sold under 7 brand names in the FDA directory — Abreva, Cold Sore Fever Blister Treatment, Cold Sore Treatment, Cold Sore Fever Blister and others. A brand and its generic contain the same active ingredient; the brand name belongs to one company's product.

Who makes Docosanol: manufacturers and labelers

41 companies list Docosanol products with the FDA. By number of product records, the largest are P & L Development, LLC, WALMART INC. (see also Equate), Walgreens. Labelers include manufacturers and repackagers; the product in your bottle depends on which one your pharmacy stocks.

…and 17 more on the FDA NDC directory.

Medications related to Docosanol