Famciclovir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Famciclovir 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
- Tablet
- Sold as
- Famvir
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $12 for a 30-count supply — not your price
Every famciclovir 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: Famvir.
What famciclovir pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Famciclovir recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
How long famciclovir keeps
No famciclovir label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does famciclovir expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsFamciclovir and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for famciclovir: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadBecause there is no published experience with famciclovir during breastfeeding, other agents may be preferred, especially while nursing a newborn or preterm infant.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised January 15, 2025. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about famciclovir
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 2,854 reports naming famciclovir, and the FDA flagged 71% 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:
- fatigue195 reports
- diarrhoea188 reports
- nausea156 reports
- headache146 reports
- rash121 reports
- dizziness103 reports
- pyrexia96 reports
- dyspnoea94 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean famciclovir 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
Can you take famciclovir 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 famciclovir 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 famciclovir come in?
Across the brands we track, famciclovir is currently marketed as tablet, 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 famciclovir?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled famciclovir 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.
Has famciclovir been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 1 recall record whose product description mentions famciclovir. The most recent: Famciclovir Tablets (Jun 11, 2025). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Famciclovir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/famciclovir
- MLA
- “Famciclovir: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/famciclovir.
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 famciclovir on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.