93 00905 directed to various aspects and applications of the mac formulation lowering the level of propylene glycol below the u201c at least 30 weight percent u201d advised by these patents and applications significantly reduces antiviral efficacy and results in a formulation which is only marginally better than the placebo in particular the lesion score is less that one half unit lower than the placebo with barely measurable decreases in time to lesion and time to heal in contrast the compositions of the invention as depicted in fig1 show a significantly improved efficacy relative to both the placebo and the substantially prior art formulation of fig2 in particular the lesion score remains at all times less than 1 and is below 0 5 at day 8 clearly the combination of a reduced propylene glycol concentration in conjunction with the addition of the isopropyl alkanoic acid ester isporopyl myristate significantly aids antiviral and therapeutic efficacy of combination products comprising an antiviral and an antiinflammatory glucocorticoid fig6 depicts lesion score as a function of days in the guinea pig model broadly as described above but employing a slightly more pathogenic strain of herpes simplex type 1 from an experiment comparing the composition of the invention example 1 with a.