Ablysinol (a brand of 99% ethanol medical alcohol) was sold from $1,300 to $10,000 per 10-pack[Give volume amount please] in 2020 due to FDA administrator action granting exclusivity when used for treating hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with alcohol septal ablation in the US through 2025, despite "misuse" of the orphan drug act.

[3] Both ethanol and isopropyl alcohol are common ingredients in topical antiseptics, including hand sanitizer.

Also, alcohol is added to mouthwash not to destroy bacteria but to act as a carrier agent for essential active ingredients such as menthol, eucalyptol and thymol, which help to penetrate plaque.

[20] A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis concluded that there is no definitive link between alcohol-based mouthwash use and the risk of oral cancer.

"[23] Ethchlorvynol, developed in the 1950s, was used to treat insomnia, but prescriptions for the drug had fallen significantly by 1990, as other hypnotics that were considered safer (i.e., less dangerous in overdose) became much more common.

[24] It is no longer prescribed in the United States due to unavailability, but it is still available in some countries and would still be considered legal to possess and use with a valid prescription.

[27][28][medical citation needed] Since antiquity, prior to the development of modern agents, alcohol was used as a general anesthetic.

[32] At times and places of poor public sanitation (such as medieval Europe), the consumption of alcoholic drinks was a way of avoiding water-borne diseases such as cholera.

[33] Early doctors recognized that ethanol was a risky anesthetic because it could lead to death from alcohol poisoning or vomit inhalation (pulmonary aspiration).

Methylpentynol, discovered 1913, prescribed for the treatment of insomnia, but its use was quickly phased out in response to newer drugs with far more favorable safety profiles.