TCP commercial from 1981

TCP is a mild antiseptic, produced in France by Laboratoires Chemineau in Vouvray and sold in the United Kingdom by Pfizer.

The brand name comes from its original chemical name, which was Trichlorophenylmethyliodosalicyl (not to be confused with Trichlorophenol, a common fungicide). Trichlorophenylmethyliodosalicyl was replaced as the active ingredient by a mixture of phenol and halogenated phenols in the 1950s. The liquid form of TCP is one of the most well-known brands of antiseptic in the UK, and its distinctive sweet, medicinal odour can be identified by many as the generic smell of antiseptic.

The rights to TCP have been sold by Pfizer for “strategic reasons” to a Belgian company known as Omega Pharma.