Although made at a campfire, healing powder uses the Medicine skill to scale its effectiveness. It also counts as a stimpak for the purposes of the Stim-ply Amazing achievement.
Soldiers of the Legion use healing powder as their primary source of medicine and healing since the Legion bans the use of other chems, such as stimpaks. Due to this, the Courier can find healing powder around Legion camps and carried by legionaries. Large quantities of healing powder are found at the Legion fort.
Legate Lanius carries a special version called Legate healing powder. It is weightless, heals 3 HP per second over 27 seconds at maximum effectiveness, and uses the same world model as Buffout. However, it deducts 3 Perception.