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Docosanol

Docosanol
Skeletal formula of docosanol
Spacefill model of docosanol
Names
Systematic IUPAC name
Docosan-1-ol
Other names
Behenic alcohol

Behenyl alcohol
Cachalot BE-22
1-Docosanol
n-Docosanol
Docosyl alcohol
Emery 3304

Loxiol VPG 1451
Identifiers
661-19-8 YesY
3D model (Jmol) Interactive image
1770470
ChEBI CHEBI:31000 YesY
ChEMBL ChEMBL1200453 N
ChemSpider 12100 YesY
DrugBank DB00632 YesY
EC Number 211-546-6
KEGG D03884 YesY
MeSH docosanol
PubChem 12620
RTECS number JR1315000
UNII 9G1OE216XY YesY
Properties
C22H46O
Molar mass 326.61 g·mol−1
Melting point 70 °C; 158 °F; 343 K
Boiling point 180 °C; 356 °F; 453 K at 29 Pa
log P 10.009
Pharmacology
D06BB11 (WHO)
  • US: B (No risk in non-human studies)
Topical
Legal status
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
N  (what is YesYN ?)
Infobox references

Behenyl alcohol
Cachalot BE-22
1-Docosanol
n-Docosanol
Docosyl alcohol
Emery 3304

Docosanol, also known as behenyl alcohol, is a saturated fatty alcohol used traditionally as an emollient, emulsifier, and thickener in cosmetics, and nutritional supplement (as an individual entity and also as a constituent of policosanol).

More recently, docosanol has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a pharmaceutical antiviral agent for reducing the duration of cold sores caused by the herpes simplex virus in the OTC medication Abreva.

Docosanol is thought to act by inhibiting the fusion of the human host cell with the viral envelope of the herpes virus, thus preventing its replication. This mechanism has not been demonstrated empirically.

The drug was licensed as a cream for oral herpes after clinical trials by the FDA in July 2000. It was shown to shorten the healing by 17.5 hours on average (95% confidence interval: 2 to 22 hours) in a placebo-controlled trial. Another trial showed no effect when treating the infected backs of guinea pigs.

Two experiments with n-docosanol cream failed to show statistically significant differences by any parameter between n-docasonol cream and vehicle control–treated sites or between n-docosanol and untreated infection sites.

Marketed by Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Abreva was the first but not the only over-the-counter antiviral drug approved for sale in the United States and Canada. In Europe, it is marketed by Healthcare Brands under the name Erazaban. In the UK it is known by the name "Blistex Cold Sore Cream". In March 2007 it was the subject of a US nationwide class-action suit against Avanir and GlaxoSmithKline as the claim that it cut recovery times in half was found to have been misleading in a California court, but the case was eventually settled and the "cuts healing time in half" claim had not been used in product advertising for some years.


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