Tamiflu
An oral antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza A and B.
Where Oseltamivir is approved
All regulators →Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Oseltamivir was the US, on 27 Oct 1999. It is approved in 3 of the 3 regulators tracked here.
From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.
What health systems spend on Oseltamivir
All medicines →From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.
How Oseltamivir works
All drug targets →- Neuraminidase inhibitor InhibitorChEMBL only
- COVID-19Phase 3
- COVID-19–associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in childrenPhase 3
- Orthocoronavirinae infectious diseasePhase 3
- Autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpuraPhase 3
- Influenza A (H1N1)Phase 3
- Swine influenzaPhase 3
- Recurrent lower respiratory tract infectionsPhase 2
- InfectionPhase 2
- PneumoniaPhase 2
Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL1229, CC BY-SA 3.0. Targets checked against the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (2026.3), ligand 11427, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.
NICE appraisals of Oseltamivir
All NICE appraisals →NICE, which decides whether the NHS in England should fund new medicines, has published 4 technology appraisals of Oseltamivir. 4 are current, and 4 of these recommend it for at least some patients.
| Appraisal | NICE recommendation | Published | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir for the treatment of influenza NICE TA168 | Recommended Not recommended | 25 Feb 2009 | Current |
| Oseltamivir, amantadine (review) and zanamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza NICE TA158 | Not recommended Recommended | 24 Sep 2008 | Current |
| The clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of amantadine and oseltamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza NICE TA67 | Not recommended Recommended | 24 Sep 2003 | Current |
| Flu treatment - zanamivir, amantadine and oseltamivir NICE TA58 | Not recommended Recommended | 26 Feb 2003 | Current |
NICE decisions apply to the NHS in England. In Ireland the HSE decides on reimbursement, advised by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. Titles, categories and dates link to the guidance on nice.org.uk. © NICE 2026 technology appraisal guidance. Available from www.nice.org.uk/guidance. All rights reserved. Subject to Notice of rights. NICE guidance is prepared for the National Health Service in England. All NICE guidance is subject to regular review and may be updated or withdrawn. NICE accepts no responsibility for the use of its content in this product/publication.
Patient leaflets for Oseltamivir
The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.
- IEIreland: 7 products on the HPRA listEach product record links to the HPRA, which publishes the leaflet and SmPC.
- EU
- UKUnited Kingdom: Search MHRA ProductsPatient information leaflets and SmPCs for UK-licensed products.
- USUnited States: Search DailyMedFDA-approved labels, including patient and medication guides.
Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.
Reference identifiers for Oseltamivir
- ATC code
- J05AH02
- ChEMBL
- CHEMBL1229
- DrugBank
- DB00198
- PubChem CID
- 65028
- CAS number
- 196618-13-0
- FDA UNII
- 20O93L6F9H
- Wikidata
- Q211509
- Wikipedia
- Oseltamivir
Codes that identify this medicine in other databases, from Wikidata (CC0), matched by its ChEMBL ID. The ATC code is the WHO classification of what the medicine is used for.
What Tamiflu is used for
TAMIFLU is an influenza neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) indicated for: Treatment of acute, uncomplicated influenza A and B in patients 2 weeks of age and older who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours. ( 1.1 ) Prophylaxis of influenza A and B in patients 1 year and older. ( 1.2 ) Limitations of Use : Not a substitute for annual influenza vaccination. ( 1.3 ) Consider available information on influenza drug susceptibility patterns and treatment effects when deciding whether to use. ( 1.3 ) Not recommended for patients with end-stage renal disease not undergoing dialysis. ( 1.3 ) 1.1 Treatment of Influenza TAMIFLU is indicated for the treatment of acute, uncomplicated illness due to influenza A and B infection in patients 2 weeks of age and older who have been symptomatic for no more than 48 hours. 1.2 Prophylaxis of Influenza TAMIFLU is indicated for the prophylaxis of influenza…
How it works
12.1 Mechanism of Action Oseltamivir is an antiviral drug with activity against influenza virus [see Microbiology (12.4) ].
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How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 11 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.