Adrafinil is a wakefulness-promoting drug developed in France by Laboratoires Lafon in the 1970s. In the body it is converted into modafinil, and it was the compound whose study led to modafinil’s discovery. It was sold in France as Olmifon, a prescription drug for alertness and attention problems in older adults.

The most important facts are about its status. Olmifon was no longer marketed in France by late 2011, after French health authorities repeatedly rated its clinical benefit as insufficient. Adrafinil has never been approved by the FDA, and the FDA has treated it as an unapproved new drug, not a dietary supplement. Controlled human trial data are very thin. It is prohibited in competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

This page summarizes what the former French product information, French regulators, the FDA, WADA and the published studies report. It is for education only and is not medical advice.

Property	Detail
Drug class	Wakefulness-promoting agent (“eugeroic”); prodrug of modafinil
Former brand	Olmifon (France; later holders Cephalon France and Teva Santé); authorized July 10, 1981
Route and strength	Oral film-coated tablet, 300 mg
Former labeled dose (France)	2–4 tablets (600–1,200 mg) per day, morning and noon; 300–600 mg/day in severe liver or kidney impairment
Half-life	Human elimination half-life not reported in the product information; peak level ≈0.9 h after an oral dose
Key safety point in the label	Monitor alkaline phosphatase (a liver enzyme) during prolonged treatment
France	No longer marketed by November 2011; clinical benefit rated insufficient
US status	Not FDA-approved; not listed in the DEA controlled substance schedules (21 CFR Part 1308)
WADA status (2026)	Prohibited in competition; S6.A non-Specified stimulant

What it is

Adrafinil’s chemical name is 2-benzhydrylsulfinyl-N-hydroxyacetamide, formula C₁₅H₁₅NO₃S, molecular weight 289.4 (PubChem). It differs from modafinil by a single hydroxyl group on the amide nitrogen (an “N-hydroxy” amide). Removing that group in the body yields modafinil itself.

Compound	Relationship	US status
Adrafinil	Prodrug; converted to modafinil in the body	Not approved; not scheduled
Modafinil	Active metabolite; racemic (R + S)	FDA-approved (Provigil); Schedule IV
Armodafinil	R-enantiomer of modafinil	FDA-approved (Nuvigil); covered on its own page

History

According to a history of modafinil by two sleep researchers (Billiard and Broughton, Sleep Med 2018):

Lafon identified adrafinil in 1974. In mice it caused a dose-dependent rise in motor activity without peripheral sympathomimetic effects (effects on heart rate and blood vessels typical of amphetamine-type stimulants).
The French sleep researcher Michel Jouvet prescribed it to people with narcolepsy in 1977–78, but results were not consistent.
Studies of how adrafinil is handled in the body identified modafinil as its active metabolite. Jouvet began giving modafinil to patients in 1983, and modafinil was registered in France in 1992.

Adrafinil itself received a French marketing authorization on July 10, 1981 (HAS, 2011). Its approved use was narrow: treatment of vigilance and attention disorders and slowed thinking and movement (“ralentissement idéomoteur”) in older adults (Olmifon SmPC, ANSM).

Mechanism

The French product information described adrafinil’s main action as activation of postsynaptic α1-adrenergic receptors in the brain’s wakefulness systems (Olmifon SmPC). Since adrafinil acts largely through modafinil, the mechanistic research on modafinil, including its action on the dopamine transporter, is covered on the modafinil page.

Pharmacokinetics

The French product information gave only partial data (Olmifon SmPC):

Parameter	Value
Absorption (healthy people, fasting)	Very rapid; absorption half-life 12 ± 3 min
Time to peak plasma level	0.90 ± 0.2 h
Plasma protein binding	≈80%, mainly albumin, not saturable
Kidney impairment	No change in elimination constants with creatinine level
Severe liver impairment (biopsy-proven cirrhosis)	Metabolism disturbed; dose to be halved
Elimination half-life in animals	1.08 ± 0.13 h; metabolized in the liver to an inactive acid and a glucuronide, excreted mainly in urine

The label did not give an elimination half-life for adrafinil in humans. Because adrafinil is converted to modafinil, the duration of effect is expected to depend largely on modafinil, whose labeled effective half-life is covered on the modafinil page. No published human study gives the fraction of an adrafinil dose that becomes modafinil.

Conversion to modafinil in humans

Two forensic and doping-control studies confirm the conversion in people:

Urine. A Chinese anti-doping laboratory developed a method to detect adrafinil and its major metabolites, modafinil and modafinil acid, in human urine. The method met WADA’s required detection limits and was used on samples from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (Lu et al., Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 2009).
Hair. In a French forensic case, a woman’s urine contained modafinil at about 1 mg/L but no adrafinil. In a single-volunteer study, one of the authors took 200 mg adrafinil once, and both adrafinil (0.8 ng/mg) and modafinil (0.5 ng/mg) were found in his beard hair 10 days later (Ameline et al., Forensic Sci Res 2020).

In practice, adrafinil use can show up on a drug test mainly as modafinil, as it did in the urine sample in the forensic case.

Former medical use and regulatory history

France

In France, Olmifon was a prescription-only (Liste I) medicine. The product information made these points (Olmifon SmPC):

Use: vigilance and attention disorders and slowed thinking and movement in older adults.
Dose: 2–4 tablets of 300 mg per day, taken in the morning and at noon.
Efficacy limits: in the label’s own words, Olmifon “had not proven its efficacy” outside older adults.
Doping: athletes were warned that it can cause a positive anti-doping test.

France’s Transparency Committee (part of the Haute Autorité de Santé, HAS) reviews clinical benefit for reimbursement. In its November 2, 2011 opinion it reported the following (HAS, 2011):

The drug was “no longer marketed.”
The company had provided no new clinical data since 2006, and the benefit had already been rated insufficient in 2006.
Safety reports covering February 2006 to November 2010 described cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, which are severe skin reactions. These had led the company to request a change to the marketing authorization.
The efficacy/side-effect balance in its indication was “poorly established,” and no current guideline recommended adrafinil for age-related attention or vigilance problems.
The committee recommended removing Olmifon from the list of reimbursed medicines.

Secondary accounts describe a separate benefit/risk review by the French medicines agency (then Afssaps) in 2011 that ended in withdrawal of the authorization. We could not locate the agency’s own decision, so we do not give a date for it.

United States

Adrafinil has never been approved by the FDA. In a February 2019 warning letter to a US company selling it online as a “nootropic,” the FDA stated that adrafinil is not a dietary supplement and is a “new drug” that cannot be legally sold without an approved application. It also stated that the products were misbranded (FDA warning letter, 2019).

Adrafinil is not named in the DEA schedules of controlled substances in 21 CFR Part 1308, although modafinil is listed in Schedule IV (21 CFR Part 1308). An FDA laboratory paper likewise describes adrafinil as an unapproved, unscheduled modafinil analog (Bakota and Nandrea, J Diet Suppl 2025).

What the research shows

Humans

There are no modern randomized controlled trials of adrafinil in humans indexed in PubMed. The clinical studies behind the French approval date from the 1980s. HAS judged that they did not establish a well-defined benefit (HAS, 2011). Most published human data come from case reports and drug-testing studies, not efficacy trials.

There are no controlled studies of adrafinil for cognitive enhancement in healthy adults. Claims that it works “like modafinil” rest on the conversion, not on direct trials. The evidence for modafinil itself in healthy adults is reviewed on the modafinil page.

Aged dogs

Most of the controlled data come from one research group studying aged beagles. These are animal results and do not show what happens in people.

Study	Design	Dose (oral)	Main finding
Siwak et al., Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2000	Crossover, 14 days per dose	10, 20, 30, 40 mg/kg/day	More locomotion at the three higher doses, mostly without stereotyped behavior; some dogs showed no effect or less movement
Milgram et al., Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2000	Counterbalanced crossover vs placebo	20 mg/kg	Fewer errors and trials to learn a discrimination task
Siwak et al., Am J Vet Res 2000	Randomized, 36 dogs, 33 days, vs propentofylline and nicergoline	20 mg/kg/day	More locomotion; the other two drugs had no effect on locomotion
Siwak et al., Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2003	Crossover, 18 dogs vs placebo	10 and 20 mg/kg	20 mg/kg worsened working memory (more errors on a spatial memory task)

The same group’s review concluded that adrafinil is a behavioral stimulant with cognitive-enhancing potential and an unknown mechanism (Siwak et al., Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2000). The 2003 working-memory study shows that the effects were not uniformly positive, even in dogs.

Side effects and risks

Reported side effects

The French product information listed these adverse effects (Olmifon SmPC):

transient agitation, confusion, aggressiveness or excitation, and insomnia, which resolved after stopping, and sometimes despite continuing or lowering the dose;
rarely, involuntary movements such as orofacial (mouth and face) dyskinesias or tremor of the hands and feet, and mood switches in people with bipolar disorder;
headache, stomach pain and skin rashes, reported in clinical trials.

The label gave no frequencies for these effects.

Severe skin reactions

As noted above, post-marketing safety reports from 2006–2010 included cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis (HAS, 2011). These are rare but life-threatening reactions.

Liver

The product information advised monitoring alkaline phosphatase, a liver enzyme, during prolonged treatment. It also called for a lower dose (300–600 mg/day) in severe liver impairment and halving the dose in cirrhosis (Olmifon SmPC). We found no published study or case series in PubMed that quantifies liver enzyme changes or liver injury with adrafinil. The common online claim that adrafinil is “hard on the liver” therefore rests on this label precaution, not on measured human data.

Movement disorder

A French case report described orofacial dyskinesia (involuntary mouth and face movements) attributed to adrafinil. The movements did not resolve during four months off the drug and improved only after treatment with tetrabenazine (Thobois et al., Mov Disord 2004). This contrasts with the label, which described such movements as reversible after stopping.

Interactions and who should avoid it

The French label listed only a possible increase in the disinhibiting effect of antipsychotic (neuroleptic) drugs. It advised against use in pregnancy, because the data were insufficient, and called for caution in epilepsy (Olmifon SmPC). Because adrafinil becomes modafinil, modafinil’s labeled interactions and warnings are also relevant; see the modafinil page.

Quality of products sold as supplements

Adrafinil sold online is not a regulated medicine. An FDA laboratory found adrafinil in all four products bought undercover that were marketed as nootropic dietary supplements and labeled to contain it (Bakota and Nandrea, J Diet Suppl 2025). The same paper developed methods for related unscheduled modafinil analogs (CRL-40,940, CRL-40,941 and N-methyl-4,4-difluoromodafinil), which are sold through the same channels.

Anti-doping status

The WADA 2026 Prohibited List names adrafinil under S6.A, non-Specified stimulants, prohibited in competition. Modafinil and the related analogs fladrafinil, flmodafinil and hydrafinil are listed in the same section (WADA 2026 Prohibited List). Because adrafinil converts to modafinil, routine doping tests look for modafinil and modafinil acid as well as the parent drug (Lu et al., 2009).

Key takeaways

A prodrug of modafinil. Adrafinil is converted to modafinil in the body, and studying it led to modafinil’s discovery. Human urine and hair studies confirm the conversion.
A failed medicine in France. Olmifon was approved in 1981 for older adults, but French reviewers repeatedly rated its benefit insufficient, and it was no longer marketed by 2011.
Thin human evidence. There are no modern controlled human trials. Most controlled data come from aged dogs, and one dog study found that it worsened working memory.
Liver and skin warnings. The French label advised monitoring alkaline phosphatase during long-term use. Post-marketing reports included Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis.
Unapproved, but not scheduled, in the US. The FDA treats it as an unapproved new drug, not a supplement. It is not listed in the DEA schedules, unlike modafinil (Schedule IV).
Banned in sport. It is prohibited in competition under WADA S6.A, and doping tests look for modafinil and modafinil acid as well as adrafinil.

Sources

Billiard M, Broughton R. Modafinil: its discovery, the early European and North American experience in the treatment of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, and its subsequent use in other medical conditions. Sleep Med. 2018;49:69–72. PubMed.
Haute Autorité de Santé, Commission de la transparence. Avis: OLMIFON, comprimé pelliculé (adrafinil). November 2, 2011. HAS.
Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament (ANSM). OLMIFON, comprimé pelliculé: résumé des caractéristiques du produit (archived; updated March 24, 2014). ANSM.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 3033226, Adrafinil. PubChem.
Lu J, Wang X, Yang S, et al. Doping control analysis for adrafinil and its major metabolites in human urine. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2009;23(11):1592–1600. PubMed.
Ameline A, Gheddar L, Raul JS, Kintz P. Identification of adrafinil and its main metabolite modafinil in human hair. Self-administration study and interpretation of an authentic case. Forensic Sci Res. 2020;5(4):322–326. PubMed.
US Food and Drug Administration. Warning letter to Peak Nootropics LLC (aka Advanced Nootropics), MARCS-CMS 557887. February 2019. FDA.
Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR Part 1308, Schedules of Controlled Substances. eCFR.
Bakota EL, Nandrea JM. Development and validation of an analytical method to identify and quantitate novel modafinil analogs in products marketed as dietary supplements. J Diet Suppl. 2025;22(2):329–344. PubMed.
Siwak CT, Gruet P, Woehrlé F, et al. Behavioral activating effects of adrafinil in aged canines. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2000;66(2):293–300. PubMed.
Milgram NW, Siwak CT, Gruet P, et al. Oral administration of adrafinil improves discrimination learning in aged beagle dogs. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2000;66(2):301–305. PubMed.
Siwak CT, Gruet P, Woehrlé F, et al. Comparison of the effects of adrafinil, propentofylline, and nicergoline on behavior in aged dogs. Am J Vet Res. 2000;61(11):1410–1414. PubMed.
Siwak CT, Tapp PD, Milgram NW. Adrafinil disrupts performance on a delayed nonmatching-to-position task in aged beagle dogs. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2003;76(1):161–168. PubMed.
Siwak CT, Callahan H, Milgram NW. Adrafinil: effects on behavior and cognition in aged canines. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2000;24(5):709–726. PubMed.
Thobois S, Xie J, Mollion H, et al. Adrafinil-induced orofacial dyskinesia. Mov Disord. 2004;19(8):965–966. PubMed.
World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List, International Standard. In effect January 1, 2026. WADA.

Adrafinil