Mebendazole: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Mebendazole is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand, for ancylostomiasis, ascariasis and trichuriasis. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Ancylostomiasis, Ascariasis and Trichuriasis
- Available as
- Tablet, chewable
- Sold as
- Vermox
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How mebendazole is dosed
From the FDA label for Vermox (application NDA017481). Other mebendazole products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
The recommended dosage in patients one year of age and older is one VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet taken as a single dose. Chew VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet completely before swallowing. Do not swallow the tablet whole. For patients who have difficulty chewing the tablet, approximately 2 mL to 3 mL of drinking water can be added to a suitably sized spoon and the VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet placed into the water. Within 2 minutes, the tablet absorbs the water and turns into a soft mass with semi-solid consistency, which can then be swallowed. VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet can be taken without regard to food intake [see Clinical Pharmacology (12.3) ]. The recommended dosage in patients one year of age and older is one single tablet of VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg taken as a single dose, chewed completely before swallowing ( 2 ). See Full Prescribing Information for administration instructions for patients who have difficulty chewing the tablets ( 2 )
Mebendazole side effects
Adverse reactions reported in clinical trials were anorexia, abdominal pain, diarrhea, flatulence, nausea, vomiting and rash. ( 6.1 ). To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. at 1-800-JANSSEN (1-800-526-7736) or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. 6.1 Clinical Studies Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. The safety of mebendazole was evaluated in 6276 adult and pediatric subjects one year of age and older who participated in 39 clinical trials for treatment of single or mixed parasitic infections of the gastrointestinal tract. In these trials, the formulations, dosages and duration of mebendazole treatment varied. Adverse reactions reported in mebendazole-treated subjects from the 39 clinical trials are shown in Table 1 below. Table 1: Adverse Reactions Reported in Mebendazole-Treated Subjects from 39 Clinical Trials Includes mebendazole formulations, dosages and treatment duration other than VERMOX™ CHEWABLE 500 mg tablet Adverse Reaction(s) Gastrointestinal Disorders Anorexia Abdominal Pain Diarrhea Flatulence Nausea Vomiting Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue Disorders Rash Clinical Studies with Mebendazole…
Who shouldn’t take mebendazole
VERMOX™ CHEWABLE is contraindicated in persons with a known hypersensitivity to the drug or its excipients. Patients with a known hypersensitivity to the drug or its excipients ( 4 )
Mebendazole drug interactions
Concomitant use of mebendazole and metronidazole should be avoided [see Warnings and Precautions (5.3) ] .
Every mebendazole 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: Vermox.
What mebendazole pills look like
Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.
Can you crush or split mebendazole?
At least one mebendazoleproduct is labelled to be swallowed whole — crushing an extended-release tablet releases the whole day’s dose at once. Which applies depends on the form you were given.
What each mebendazole label says about crushing, splitting and chewingMebendazole and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for mebendazole: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadMebendazole is poorly excreted into breastmilk and poorly absorbed orally. Reports on the use of mebendazole during breastfeeding have found no adverse reactions in breastfed infants. There are rare case reports of a decrease in milk supply following use of mebendazole, but no convincing evidence that these were caused by the drug. No special precautions are required.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised August 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about mebendazole
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 394 reports naming mebendazole, and the FDA flagged 86% 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:
- nausea29 reports
- foetal exposure during pregnancy25 reports
- dizziness22 reports
- fatigue21 reports
- abdominal pain18 reports
- anxiety17 reports
- vomiting16 reports
- back pain14 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean mebendazole 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 mebendazole?
Vermox (Mebendazole) is a medication used to treat Ancylostomiasis, Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Enterobiasis.
Can you take mebendazole 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 mebendazole 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 mebendazole come in?
Across the brands we track, mebendazole is currently marketed as tablet, chewable, 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 mebendazole?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled mebendazole 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). Mebendazole: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mebendazole
- MLA
- “Mebendazole: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mebendazole.
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 mebendazole on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.