Kanamycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Kanamycin 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
- Kantrex
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
Every kanamycin 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: Kantrex.
Kanamycin and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for kanamycin: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadIf kanamycin is required by the mother, it is not a reason to discontinue breastfeeding. Kanamycin is poorly excreted into breastmilk. Newborn infants apparently absorb small amounts of other aminoglycosides, but serum levels with typical three times daily dosages are far below those attained when treating newborn infections and systemic effects of kanamycin are unlikely. Older infants would be expected to absorb even less kanamycin. Because there is little variability in the milk kanamycin levels during multiple daily dose regimens, timing breastfeeding with respect to the dose is of little or no benefit in reducing infant exposure. Data are not available with single daily dose regimens. Monitor the infant for possible effects on the gastrointestinal flora, such as diarrhea, candidiasis (e.g., thrush, diaper rash) or rarely, blood in the stool indicating possible antibiotic-associated colitis.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised July 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about kanamycin
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 70 reports naming kanamycin, and the FDA flagged 99% 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:
- nausea15 reports
- vomiting14 reports
- anaemia11 reports
- drug resistance7 reports
- decreased appetite6 reports
- interstitial lung disease6 reports
- neuropathy peripheral6 reports
- platelet count decreased6 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean kanamycin 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 kanamycin 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 kanamycin 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 kanamycin come in?
Across the brands we track, kanamycin 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 kanamycin?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic kanamycin product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Kanamycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/kanamycin
- MLA
- “Kanamycin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/kanamycin.
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 kanamycin on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.