The short answer
Sofdra is not available in the UK. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in June 2024 for primary axillary hyperhidrosis in adults and children aged nine and over. We have found no MHRA marketing authorisation for sofpironium bromide in the UK, which means no UK prescriber can write you a normal prescription for it and no UK pharmacy stocks it.
That is worth saying plainly, because Sofdra generated a lot of coverage and almost all of it was written for an American audience. If you have read that there is "a new treatment for excessive sweating", this is usually the one being described — and it is not one you can get here yet.
What Sofdra actually is
Sofdra is a gel containing sofpironium 12.45%, applied to the underarms at bedtime using a supplied applicator and washed off in the morning.
It works differently from the antiperspirants most people have tried. An aluminium chloride antiperspirant such as Driclor forms a physical plug inside the sweat duct. Sofpironium is an anticholinergic: it blocks acetylcholine, the chemical messenger that tells the sweat gland to produce sweat in the first place. It is the same class of drug as glycopyrronium wipes and the oral tablets covered in our guide to prescription medications — just formulated to act mainly where you put it.
What the trials showed
The phase 3 programme enrolled roughly 700 participants with primary axillary hyperhidrosis. The headline results:
| Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
| Participants with a ≥50% reduction in sweat production | More than 60% |
| Participants reporting clinically meaningful improvement | 85% |
| Time to first reported relief | As early as one week |
Those are genuinely good numbers for a topical treatment. Two caveats worth holding onto. First, the trials covered underarms only — there is no approved indication for hands, feet or face, which are the areas people most often find hardest to treat. Second, these were manufacturer-sponsored registration trials, which is normal for a new drug but does mean independent long-term data is still thin.
The side effects are systemic, not just skin-deep
This is the part that gets glossed over in the coverage. Because sofpironium is absorbed through the skin, it produces the same kind of anticholinergic effects as an oral tablet, not just local irritation.
Reported in trials:
| Side effect | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Blurred vision | 19% |
| Dry mouth | 17% |
| Underarm itching | 15% |
| Underarm swelling or irritation | 11% |
| Underarm pain | 8% |
| Underarm redness | 8% |
| Dilated pupils | 5% |
| Dry eyes | 4% |
| Urinary retention | 4% |
Nearly one in five with blurred vision is not a trivial rate. Much of it comes from transferring the gel to the eyes by touching the face after application, which is why handwashing after use matters. But dry mouth at 17% is the same complaint that limits how tolerable the oral anticholinergics are.
What you can actually get in the UK
If you came here because first-line antiperspirants have not worked, the UK ladder looks like this — and it is shorter and cheaper than most people expect:
- 20% aluminium chloride hexahydrate — Driclor, Anhydrol Forte or Odaban. These are pharmacy medicines you can buy over the counter, no prescription. NICE's clinical knowledge summary puts a 20% aluminium chloride antiperspirant first for primary localised hyperhidrosis. Most people who say it did not work applied it to damp skin or in the morning; it has to go on completely dry skin at night. Our antiperspirant strength finder walks through which formulation suits which area.
- Oral medication — propantheline is the only oral antimuscarinic licensed for hyperhidrosis in the UK. Oxybutynin is widely used off-label because the evidence for it is better and it costs less.
- Iontophoresis — particularly effective for hands and feet, available in some NHS dermatology departments and as a home device.
- Botulinum toxin — Botox for sweating is funded by some Integrated Care Boards for severe underarm hyperhidrosis after first-line treatment has failed.
Our UK treatment cost calculator compares what each of these costs privately against what the NHS is likely to fund.
Will Sofdra come to the UK?
We do not know, and we would rather say so than guess. A US approval does not oblige a manufacturer to seek an MHRA authorisation, and hyperhidrosis is a small enough market that plenty of treatments never make the crossing — Qbrexza has been licensed in the US since 2018 and is still not routinely available here.
If you see a website offering to ship Sofdra to the UK, treat it with real caution. Importing a prescription-only medicine without a UK prescription is not something we would recommend, and you have no assurance about what is in the bottle.
We will update this page if the MHRA position changes.
