Benzylpenicilloyl Polylysine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Benzylpenicilloyl Polylysine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- Pre-Pen
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How benzylpenicilloyl polylysine is dosed
From the FDA label for Pre-Pen (application BLA050114). Other benzylpenicilloyl polylysine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Skin testing responses can be attenuated by interfering drugs (e.g. H1-antihistamines and vasopressors). Skin testing should be delayed until the effects of such drugs have dissipated, or a separate skin test with histamine can be used to evaluate persistent antihistaminic effects in vivo. Due to the risk of potential systemic allergic reactions, skin testing should be performed in an appropriate healthcare setting under direct medical supervision. Puncture Testing : Skin testing is usually performed on the inner volar aspect of the forearm. The skin test antigen should always be applied first by the puncture technique. After preparing the skin surface, apply a small drop of PRE-PEN solution using a sterile 22-28 gauge needle. The same needle can then be used to make a single shallow puncture of the epidermis through the drop of PRE-PEN. Very little pressure is required to break the epidermal continuity. Observe for the appearance of a wheal, erythema, and the occurrence of itching at the test site during the succeeding 15 minutes at which time the solution over the puncture site is wiped off. A positive reaction consists of the development within 10 minutes of a pale wheal, sometimes with pseudopods, surrounding the puncture site and varying in diameter from 5 to 15 mm (or more). This wheal may be surrounded by a variable diameter of erythema, and accompanied by a variable…
Benzylpenicilloyl Polylysine side effects
Occasionally, patients may develop an intense local inflammatory response at the skin test site. Rarely, patients will develop a systemic allergic reaction, manifested by generalized erythema, pruritus, angioedema, urticaria, dyspnea, hypotension, and anaphylaxis. The usual methods of treating a skin test antigen-induced reaction — the applications of a venous occlusion tourniquet proximal to the skin test site and administration of epinephrine are recommended. The patient should be kept under observation for several hours.
Who shouldn’t take benzylpenicilloyl polylysine
PRE-PEN is contraindicated in those patients who have exhibited either a systemic or marked local reaction to its previous administration. Patients known to be extremely hypersensitive to penicillin should not be skin tested.
Every benzylpenicilloyl polylysine product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Pre-Pen.
What people report to the FDA about benzylpenicilloyl polylysine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 21 reports naming benzylpenicilloyl polylysine, and the FDA flagged 24% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- drug hypersensitivity8 reports
- hypersensitivity8 reports
- anaphylactic reaction2 reports
- anaphylactoid reaction1 reports
- arthralgia1 reports
- asthenia1 reports
- cough1 reports
- dyspnoea1 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean benzylpenicilloyl polylysine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is benzylpenicilloyl polylysine?
PRE-PEN ® (benzylpenicilloyl polylysine) injection is a sterile solution of benzylpenicilloyl polylysine in a concentration of 6.0 X 10 -5 M (benzylpenicilloyl) in 0.01 M monobasic sodium phosphate and 0.15 M sodium chloride. Benzylpenicilloyl polylysine is a derivative of poly-l-lysine, where the epsilon amino groups are substituted with benzylpenicilloyl groups (50-70%) forming benzylpenicilloyl alpha amide. Each single-dose ampule contains 0.25 mL of PRE-PEN. PRE-PEN has the following structure: Structure
Can you take benzylpenicilloyl polylysine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run benzylpenicilloyl polylysine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does benzylpenicilloyl polylysine come in?
Across the brands we track, benzylpenicilloyl polylysine is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic benzylpenicilloyl polylysine?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled benzylpenicilloyl polylysine product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Benzylpenicilloyl Polylysine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/benzylpenicilloyl-polylysine
- MLA
- “Benzylpenicilloyl Polylysine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/benzylpenicilloyl-polylysine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for benzylpenicilloyl polylysine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.