Mupirocin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Mupirocin is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Topical
- Sold as
- 2 products — Bactroban and Centany
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $0.80 per gm — not your price
Every mupirocin product we track (2)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72/100 | Prescription | Topical | Generic | $1 | View → | |
| 2 | 72/100 | Prescription | Topical | Generic | $1 | View → |
Mupirocin recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
How long mupirocin keeps
No mupirocin 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.
Mupirocin and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for mupirocin: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadBecause less than 1% is absorbed after topical application, mupirocin is considered a low risk to the nursing infant. Ensure that the infant's skin does not come into direct contact with the areas of skin that have been treated. Only water-miscible cream or gel products should be applied to the breast because ointments may expose the infant to high levels of mineral paraffins via licking. Mupirocin applied topically to the nipples appears to be relatively ineffective as a treatment for sore, cracked nipples.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised November 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about mupirocin
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 14,775 reports naming mupirocin, and the FDA flagged 56% 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:
- nausea1,002 reports
- fatigue859 reports
- macular degeneration833 reports
- headache803 reports
- diarrhoea755 reports
- rash654 reports
- pruritus625 reports
- weight decreased603 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean mupirocin 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.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
Can you take mupirocin 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 mupirocin against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is mupirocin sold under?
We track 2 mupirocin-containing products in the U.S.: Bactroban and Centany. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does mupirocin come in?
Across the brands we track, mupirocin is currently marketed as topical, 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 mupirocin?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled mupirocin 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 mupirocin been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 1 recall record whose product description mentions mupirocin. The most recent: Mupirocin Ointment (Aug 30, 2024). 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). Mupirocin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mupirocin
- MLA
- “Mupirocin: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mupirocin.
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 mupirocin on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.