Hetacillin

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Hetacillin is a beta-lactam. Hetacillin is a prodrug and it has no intrinsic antibacterial activity, but is converted by the body to ampicillin, which is active against a variety of organisms.

[edit] Administration

Hetacillin is administered orally. The potassium salt, hetacillin potassium, is administered by injection, either intravenously or intramuscularly.

Hetacillin was removed from the market for human use when the discovery was made that it is actually cleaved in the GI tract to formaldehyde and had no benefit to non-ester derivatives (i.e. Ampicillin).