Mebendazole
Mebendazole is a worm-killing medicine (anthelmintic) taken by mouth to treat intestinal infections from roundworm, whipworm, pinworm and hookworm, depending on the product.
🧬 Where this information comes from
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 2 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 →
Mebendazole (Emverm, Vermox) is a standard first choice for gut worm infections such as pinworm, roundworm, whipworm and hookworm (approved worms vary by product), around since about 1974 and available as a generic; it disables tubulin, a building block of worm cells, so the worm can't absorb sugar and dies. It is usually well tolerated, and mild stomach pain, gas, nausea or diarrhea are the most common complaints. The one thing to avoid is metronidazole, an antibiotic, because the pair has been linked to severe blistering skin reactions. Check with your prescriber first for infants under 1 (convulsions have been reported), during pregnancy, or with liver problems.
Clinical pearls
- For pinworm, everyone in the household is often treated at the same time, because the eggs spread easily between family members.
- Pinworm eggs survive on hands, sheets and towels, so wash bedding, trim nails and scrub hands to prevent reinfection.
- Vermox Chewable must be chewed completely, while Emverm can also be swallowed or crushed and mixed into food for young children.
- No fasting or purging (a laxative clean-out) is needed before or after taking mebendazole.
Patient Information Guide A plain-language walkthrough of Mebendazole, written from its FDA label.
What Mebendazole Is Used For
▾
Mebendazole treats intestinal worm infections. The approved worms differ by product.
- Emverm (oral chewable tablet): people 2 years and older with hookworm, roundworm, pinworm and whipworm infections.
- Vermox Chewable (oral chewable tablet): people 1 year and older with roundworm and whipworm infections.
How Mebendazole Works
▾
Mebendazole is an anthelmintic, a medicine that kills parasitic worms. It interferes with tubulin, a protein the worm needs to build its cells. That damages the worm's intestine and blocks its sugar uptake, so it can't digest food or reproduce. The worm is immobilized, stops laying eggs and dies.
Resistance to mebendazole is possible. It is likely linked to changes in the worm's beta-tubulin protein, though the clinical importance is not known.
Mebendazole Dosage
▾
Mebendazole is taken by mouth as a chewable tablet. Follow your prescriber and the product label.
- Emverm: chew, swallow, or crush and mix with food. One dose treats pinworm. Whipworm, roundworm and hookworm are treated morning and evening for 3 days. If you're not cured after three weeks, a second course may be advised.
- Vermox Chewable: one tablet as a single dose, chewed completely. If chewing is hard, a pharmacist can show you how to soften it in a little water on a spoon. It can be taken with or without food.
Dosing details from the FDA-approved label
From the Mebendazole prescribing information (“Dosage and Administration”). Doses are set by your prescriber for your product, condition, kidney function and age — never change a dose on your own.
- Pinworm (enterobiasis) - Emverm, adults and pediatric patients two years of age and older
- 1 tablet once
- Tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food; if not cured three weeks after treatment, a second course is advised; no fasting or purging required
- Whipworm (trichuriasis) - Emverm, adults and pediatric patients two years of age and older
- 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days
- Tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food; if not cured three weeks after treatment, a second course is advised
- Roundworm (ascariasis) - Emverm, adults and pediatric patients two years of age and older
- 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days
- Tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food; if not cured three weeks after treatment, a second course is advised
- Hookworm - Emverm, adults and pediatric patients two years of age and older
- 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days
- Tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food; if not cured three weeks after treatment, a second course is advised
- Vermox Chewable 500 mg - patients one year of age and older
- One VERMOX CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet taken as a single dose, chewed completely before swallowing
- Do not swallow whole
- Can be taken without regard to food intake; if difficulty chewing, add approximately 2 mL to 3 mL of drinking water to a spoon, place tablet in it, and within 2 minutes it becomes a soft mass that can be swallowed
Read the label’s full dosing text
2 DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION The recommended dosage for EMVERM ® is described in Table 1 below. The same dosage schedule applies to adults and pediatric patients two years of age and older. The tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food. Table 1: Dosage of EMVERM in Adult and Pediatric Patients (two years of age and older) Pinworm (enterobiasis) Whipworm (trichuriasis) Roundworm (ascariasis) Hookworm Dose 1 tablet once 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days If the patient is not cured three weeks after treatment, a second course of treatment is advised. No special procedures, such as fasting or purging, are required. Adults and Pediatrics : The tablet may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food ( 2 ). Pinworm (enterobiasis) Whipworm (trichuriasis) Roundworm (ascariasis) Hookworm Dose 1 tablet once 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days 1 tablet morning and evening for 3 consecutive days
Read the full Dosage and Administration section on DailyMed →
Mebendazole Side Effects
▾
Most side effects involve the stomach and gut.
Common side effects
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
- Gas (flatulence)
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Rash
When to get medical help
- Get medical help right away for a severe skin reaction, such as widespread blistering or peeling (Stevens-Johnson syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis). This has been reported when mebendazole is used with metronidazole.
- Seek urgent care for signs of a serious allergic reaction, such as swelling of the face or lips (angioedema), hives, or trouble breathing.
- Call your doctor if an infant under 1 year old who took mebendazole has a convulsion (seizure).
- Tell your doctor about symptoms of liver problems, such as hepatitis or abnormal liver tests, which were reported after the drug was on the market.
- Higher doses or longer use have been linked to low white blood cell counts (neutropenia, agranulocytosis). Your doctor may check blood counts if you need higher doses or prolonged treatment.
Mebendazole Warnings and Precautions
▾
- Metronidazole: serious skin reactions (SJS/TEN) have been reported when used together. Avoid the combination.
- Infants under 1 year: convulsions have been reported.
- Blood counts: low white blood cells (neutropenia, agranulocytosis) have been reported with higher doses and longer use than recommended. Blood counts should be monitored in those cases.
Mebendazole Interactions
▾
The key interaction on the label involves metronidazole.
- Metronidazole: using it with mebendazole has been linked to serious skin reactions, so avoid the combination.
Interactions listed in the FDA-approved label
From the Mebendazole prescribing information (“Drug Interactions”): what the manufacturer studied or reported to the FDA.
- Metronidazole: The label states that concomitant use with mebendazole, including EMVERM, should be avoided. Concomitant use should be avoided
Read the label’s full interactions text
7 DRUG INTERACTIONS Concomitant use of mebendazole, including EMVERM ® , and metronidazole should be avoided [see Warnings and Precautions (5.3)] .
Not a complete list. The label covers the interactions the manufacturer studied or reported, and our own interaction database does not cover every medicine either. Bring your full medication list, including vitamins and herbal products, to your pharmacist.
Before Taking Mebendazole
▾
- Don't use it if you are allergic to mebendazole or its ingredients.
- Children: Emverm is for ages 2 and up; Vermox Chewable is for ages 1 and up. It has not been established for children under 1 year.
- Pregnancy: published human data have not shown a clear risk of birth defects or miscarriage, but animal studies showed harm at high doses. Untreated worm infections also carry risks in pregnancy. Talk with your doctor.
- Breastfeeding: a small amount passes into breast milk. Discuss the benefits and risks with your doctor.
- Liver problems can raise mebendazole levels in the blood.
- Adults 65 and older: not enough studied to know if they respond differently.
Mebendazole Overdose
▾
Accidental overdose may cause stomach and gut symptoms. Taking much more than recommended, or for a long time, has been linked to hair loss, liver problems, low white blood cell counts and kidney inflammation (glomerulonephritis). There is no specific antidote, so contact a doctor or poison control right away.
What Mebendazole Does in the Body
▾
Mebendazole disrupts tubulin formation in worms. This damages their intestinal cells, cuts off sugar uptake, and impairs digestion and reproduction. The worms are immobilized, stop producing eggs and die. It is active against roundworm and whipworm.
How Your Body Processes Mebendazole
▾
Most of a Vermox Chewable dose stays in the gut, where it acts on the worms. A high-fat meal increases how much is absorbed. The liver extensively breaks down the drug, and the half-life is about 3 to 6 hours in most people. Less than 2% leaves in urine, and the rest is eliminated in stool. Children aged 1 to 3 had higher blood exposure than adults.
How to Store Mebendazole
▾
Store below 30°C.
Written from the FDA-approved label with AI and reviewed by our pharmacy team. How we use AI →
Supplements & Herbs That Interact With Mebendazole
17 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Mebendazole 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 · 9
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.
Mebendazole: Pharmacist Answers to Common Questions
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Mebendazole — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What is mebendazole used for?
▾
How do I take it?
▾
What side effects should I expect?
▾
Can I take it with metronidazole?
▾
Is it safe in pregnancy or while breastfeeding?
▾
Can I give it to my baby?
▾
Is Mebendazole available over the counter?
▾
When was Mebendazole first available?
▾
Answers drafted from the FDA-approved label with AI and reviewed by our pharmacy team. How we use AI →
More About Mebendazole on HelloPharmacist
Mebendazole Forms and Strengths (How It Comes)
Mebendazole 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.
Need a version that does not list lactose, a gluten source, a dye or gelatin? Inactive ingredients differ by manufacturer: see Mebendazole inactive ingredients by manufacturer.
Chewable tablet
How this form is used
- Emverm is used in people 2 years and older for hookworm, roundworm, pinworm and whipworm infections.
- Vermox Chewable is used in people 1 year and older for roundworm and whipworm infections.
- Emverm may be chewed, swallowed, or crushed and mixed with food.
- Emverm: pinworm is treated once. The other worms are treated morning and evening for 3 days.
- Vermox Chewable is taken as a single dose. Chew it completely and do not swallow it whole.
- Vermox Chewable can be taken with or without food.
Mebendazole on the U.S. Market: Products, Makers and Brands
How Mebendazole 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.
1 company lists 1 Mebendazole product record with the FDA, mostly as chewable tablet; the earliest marketing or approval year on record is 1974. Brand names on the directory include Emverm, Vermox; the rest are generics.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (15) — bulk drug substance and unfinished product sold to compounders and other manufacturers to finish, and multi-item kits. These aren’t counted in the dose-form total above.
How Widely Mebendazole Is Used (Medicaid Data)
A general measure of how commonly Mebendazole 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 Mebendazole 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 Mebendazole prescribed? Of the 1,603 medications we measure, Mebendazole ranks #887 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 45% of them.
Utilization by Mebendazole 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.
Other Mebendazole products — combination packs and listings not yet matched to a specific clinical product (kept visible so every prescription is accounted for)
Summed across the 1 of 47 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity.
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 Mebendazole, 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 1 of 47 listed Mebendazole NDCs with Medicaid activity.
Compare Mebendazole Products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Mebendazole — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Chewable tablet | ||||
| 500 mg | Oral | Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | NDA | View NDC → |
Showing 1 of 1 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 1 Mebendazole NDCs →
Mebendazole Side Effects Reported to the 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 Mebendazole — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
The effects most often named in FDA reports that mention Mebendazole are foetal exposure during pregnancy, nausea, abdominal pain; about 90% of the reports were classed as serious. These are voluntary reports, so they show what people report, not how often it happens.
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 Mebendazole 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.
Mebendazole FDA Approval History
How Mebendazole went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Mebendazole was first approved by the FDA in 1974 (Brand: VERMOX · Janssen Pharms); the first generic version was approved in 1995. It remains available in U.S. pharmacies today.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
Mebendazole 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.
The FDA’s enforcement reports list no Mebendazole recalls since July 2021.
✅No Mebendazole recalls on record since July 2021Source: FDA enforcement (recall) reports, via openFDA; our copy was last updated Oct 8, 2026.
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 6672 3 dose forms · 4 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Chewable Tablet RxCUI 372720In current FDA listings -
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Suspension RxCUI 372721No current FDA listingClinical drug / strength (SCD) 20 MG/MLRxCUI 246300 -
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Tablet RxCUI 372722No current FDA listingClinical drug / strength (SCD) 100 MGRxCUI 311464
Look up RxCUI 6672 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.
Mebendazole Supply and Shortage Status
Whether Mebendazole 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.
Mebendazole Brand Names
Mebendazole is sold under 2 brand names in the FDA directory — Emverm, Vermox. A brand and its generic contain the same active ingredient; the brand name belongs to one company's product.
Who Makes Mebendazole: Manufacturers and Labelers
One company lists Mebendazole products with the FDA. By number of product records, the largest are Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Labelers include manufacturers and repackagers; the product in your bottle depends on which one your pharmacy stocks.
Mebendazole Drug Class (RxNorm)
Mebendazole belongs to the Anthelmintic 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.
Sources for This Mebendazole Page
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 this page is built
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records and does not author the underlying clinical facts. The plain-language sections are written with AI from the FDA-approved label text and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates. This is general education, not medical advice: always talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your own medicines. How we build and review drug pages →