Although the pharmaceutical product is often simply called "interferon alpha" or "IFN-α" like its endogenous counterpart, the product's International nonproprietary name (INN) is interferon alfa (the spelling of 'alfa' with 'f' reflects INN naming conventions).

[1] Common side effects (≥10% of people) include: increased risk of infection due drop in white blood cells; difficulty sleeping; mood changes including irritability, excitement, restlessness, or depression; headaches and dizziness; dry mouth; blurred vision; feeling or being sick; abdominal pain; diarrhoea; sore mouth; taste changes; hair loss; sweating; joint and/or muscle pain; injection site reactions, fatigue, flu-like symptoms; loss of appetite and weight loss.

The IFN-α content is expressed in International Units per milliliter, and the drug product is formulated in isotonic phosphate buffer solution at pH = 7.2, and supplemented with human albumin at 1.5 mg/mL.

IFN-α1 causes increased HLA-II expression, and can directly inhibit tumor cell growth in vitro.

Despite its apparent inactivity, it is still used clinically in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, with a reported lower toxicity than the recombinant IFN-α2.