Iodine and iodine preparations are used as active ingredients in antispasmodics, coronary vasodilators and neuromuscular blocking agents, or are used in the production of pharmaceuticals compounds for endocrinology, gastroenterology, parasitology, pneumology and rheumatology. Iodine is also found in intermediate molecules for the synthesis of antibiotics, corticosteroids and other drugs.

Contrast media are diagnostic agents that are introduced into the body to fill, coast or surround the structure of interest to enhance contrast in anatomic areas where there is insufficient natural contrast. Using the relative density difference of iodine versus soft tissues and fluids, iodine compounds are used as contrast media for X-ray exams of the human body.
 
The main X-ray procedures that use iodine contrast media are intravenous pyelography, any form of angiography, CT scan, gastro-intestinal series and cholecystography.

Iodine has a germicide action due to its capacity to penetrate quickly through the cell wall of microorganisms, causing a rupture in the structures of its proteins and nucleic acid. Applications for these products are found in hospitals, laboratories, food industries, chemical plants, cattle and poultry houses, wherever sanitation is a concern.
 
Iodine effectively disinfects water against bacteria, viruses, and cysts. Iodine based tablets were initially developed to disinfect small or individual water supplies in the US army during World War II. Disinfection studies of public water supplies have shown that concentrations up to 5 ppm of iodine were not deleterious to health and just 1 ppm is sufficient to safely sanitize a water supply. Commercially available iodinators control potentially dangerous organisms by passing a side stream of water through a bed of prilled iodine.