It is used in the treatment of respiratory tract and ear, nose and throat infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria.

[1] It has been marketed in France till 2005 under the trade name Octofene and in Italy as Gramplus.

[citation needed] It is only functional against Gram-positive bacteria.

[3] A French company, Apteeus had been developing clofoctol as a potential therapy against SARS-CoV-2 in 2020-2021, but eventually the repurposing of the drug was abandoned, due to a lack of volunteers.

[4][5][6][7][8][9] A mouse study showed repurposed drug clofoctol blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication.