Pharmaceutical codes are used in medical classification to uniquely identify medication. They may uniquely identify an active ingredient, drug system (including inactive ingredients and time-release agents) in general, or a specific pharmaceutical product from a specific manufacturer.
Examples
Drug system identifiers (manufacturer-specific including inactive ingredients):
National Drug Code (NDC) — administered by Food and Drug Administration.[1]
Drug Identification Number (DIN) — administered by Health Canada under the Food and Drugs Act
Hong Kong Drug Registration — administered by the Pharmaceutical Service of the Department of Health (Hong Kong)
National Pharmaceutical Product Index - South Africa
Hierarchical systems:
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (AT, or ATC/DDD) — administered by World Health Organization
Generic Product Identifier (GPI) — hierarchical classification number published by MediSpan
SNOMED — C axis
Ingredients:
Unique Ingredient Identifier
Proprietary database identifiers include those assigned by First Databank, Micromedex, MediSpan, Gold Standard Drug Database (published by Elsevier), and Cerner Multum MediSource Lexicon; these are cross-indexed by RxNorm, which also assigns a unique identifier (RxCUI) to every combination of active ingredient and dose level.[2]
See also
Drug nomenclature
Drug class
References
↑"National Drug Code Directory". 5 May 2017. https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/InformationOnDrugs/ucm142438.htm.