About
One job: turn a brand name into the actual substance, and say how sure we are. The site is public, ad-free and non-commercial. Every answer is a candidate set, never a prescription.
Three rules
- A brand name is not a primary key. Every query returns a set of candidates; identity is pinned by country × form × strength × active ingredient.
- Collisions are derived, not annotated. When one name hangs off different ingredients, the site flags “same name, different drug” automatically.
- No dosing advice. Identification and “not interchangeable” warnings only — no dose conversion, no substitution recommendations.
Nicknames and old names
“Two frogs” (liǎng zhī qīngwā) is not a brand name and is never stored as one: it points to an ingredient, metformin. Nicknames are a separate, hand-maintained table — searchable, but deliberately kept out of the brand-name tables. When one matches, the page labels it (internet nickname / older name) and then lists that ingredient’s brands; it is never presented as a name printed on a pack. Every entry carries a source; “user-provided” is shown as unverified and is not promoted to documented until an independent source is attached. No source, no new entry.
- 57 nicknames are curated by hand in
data/seed_nicknames.pyand rebuilt — not scraped. - Nicknames never enter collision detection and never get a “same name” page: a nickname is not an identity, the ingredient is.
Folk names and class terms
A separate table (drug_term, 1,062 entries) holds folk names and category terms for legal medicines only: water pill, blood thinner, sleeping pill (shuìqiányào), the pill, morning-after pill, statin. Unlike nickname, it may point to a class rather than one ingredient, so substance_id is nullable; alias_all unions both tables for search. Drugs of abuse and recreational slang are explicitly out of scope (street / recreational drug slang); such entries were removed from the database and are not re-added.
- NIDA / DEA lists are no longer used for recreational slang; only prescription-drug category terms that are legal medicines are kept, each with a source URL.
- MedlinePlus (NLM) contributes common folk/category terms (US Government work); community sources (CN/GB/AU/ES) are labelled community name and stay searchable. FDA tall-man pairs: 22 official pairs. See the list.
Sources and coverage
| Country / region | Products | Data as of |
|---|---|---|
| AU | 44,794 | 2026-10-28 (artg_export) + 2026-10-01 (PBS) + live (TGA CMI, ARTG) |
| CA | 43,847 | 2026-10-23 (Health Canada DPD) |
| CN | 145,051 | 2025-04-04 (NHSA) |
| ES | 25,395 | live (CIMA) |
| EU | 2,095 | 2026-11-03 (eu_union_register) |
| GB | 61,051 | 2026-10-19 (dm+d) |
| HK | 13,935 | 2026-10-23 (hk_dh) |
| MX | 10,878 | — |
| SG | 5,511 | 2026-08-07 (hsa_sg) |
| TW | 16,457 | 2026-10-22 (tfda_tw) |
| US | 110,179 | 2026-10-23 (openFDA) |
Data as of = the date the source itself published / took effect / snapshotted, not our crawl date. live = a live directory with no single source date; — = annual lists only.
US: openFDA NDC Directory (US Government public data). UK: NHSBSA dm+d, Open Government Licence v3.0 — Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Spain: AEMPS CIMA — re-use allowed with express attribution and the date of last update; not an open licence (see licences below). Mexico: COFEPRIS registration lists (no stated open licence; factual fields with links) plus strength back-fill from datos.gob.mx procurement/price datasets, CC BY 4.0. Australia: PBS Schedule API (copyright notice retained) + TGA CMI directory + curated listed-OTC seeds — factual fields only, no full CMI/ARTG text. Canada: Health Canada DPD — non-commercial re-use with source acknowledgement. China: 国家医保局 医保药品分类与代码数据库 (2025-04-04 snapshot); no open redistribution licence was found, so only factual fields with links are stored.
Taiwan 台灣: TFDA 「全部藥品許可證資料集」 (data.gov.tw dataset 9122) under Open Government Data Licence v1.0 (OGDL v1.0); attribution required: 衛福部食藥署 TFDA. Data as of 2026-10-22 (weekly sync). Facts only (product name, ingredients, dosage form, manufacturer, licence number, status). Strengths are parsed from product names, so confidence is limited. Licence: data.gov.tw/license.
Singapore 新加坡: HSA Listing of Registered Therapeutic Products (data.gov.sg dataset d_767279312753558cbf19d48344577084) under the Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0 (SODL); attribution and licence link required, no government endorsement implied. Data as of 2026-08-07 (updated every 6 months). Being on the register does not mean the product is currently marketed. Brand names stay in English and are never translated; only Chinese ingredient names (inn_zh) may be shown. Attribution: Contains information from Listing of Registered Therapeutic Products accessed on 2026-10-28 from Health Sciences Authority (HSA), and made available under the Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0 (licence).
Hong Kong 中国香港: Drug Office, Department of Health — Registered Pharmaceutical Products list (data.gov.hk dataset hk-dh-dh_do-hk-dh-do-pharmaceutical-product) under DATA.GOV.HK Terms and Conditions (free reuse with attribution; no government endorsement implied). Data as of 2026-10-23. Name/ingredient layer only — no strength, dosage form or registration status; being on the register does not prove current supply.
Australia: TGA ARTG Medicines 2026-10-28 (Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods; attribution TGA/ARTG). Data as of 2026-10-28. The export has no registration-status column, so status is shown as unknown; being on the register does not mean currently marketed. 3,911 products have no ingredient records and are shown at name level only.
EU regional layer: European Commission — Union Register of medicinal products (CC BY 4.0; attribution European Commission / Union Register) plus EMA Medicines data for cross-checking (source: European Medicines Agency (EMA); no EMA logo, no implied endorsement). Central authorisations only (human medicines), data as of 2026-11-03. An EU authorisation is not a record of sale in any single country, and the register carries no strength, dosage form or pack size. Products that map to no known ingredient are shown at name level only.
Data sources and licences
Data sources and licences 数据来源与许可 Fuentes y licencias
EN: This site is a non-commercial public reference. We store only factual
fields (names, active ingredients, strengths, dosage forms, status) and link to the originals;
we do not republish full labels, CMI/SmPC texts or data dumps. Source-specific terms and
attribution are listed in the licence register.
中文：本站为非商业公开参考站，只存事实字段（名称、成分、规格、剂型、状态）并链回原文，
不转载说明书 / CMI / SmPC 全文，也不提供原始数据批量下载。各来源许可与署名见
许可清单。
ES: Este sitio es una referencia pública sin ánimo de lucro. Solo almacenamos campos
fácticos (nombres, principios activos, concentraciones, formas farmacéuticas, estado) y enlazamos
al original; no reproducimos prospectos, textos CMI/SmPC ni volcados de datos. Las condiciones y
atribuciones por fuente están en el registro de licencias.
- EU 欧盟 / Unión Europea: European Commission — Union Register of medicinal products under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: European Commission / Union Register), plus EMA Medicines data for cross-checking (source: European Medicines Agency (EMA); no EMA logo, no implied endorsement). Central authorisations (human medicines) only; the register carries no strength, dosage form or pack size, and an EU authorisation is not a record of sale in any single country. 中文：欧盟委员会 Union Register（CC BY 4.0，署名 European Commission / Union Register）+ EMA 药品数据（署名 EMA，不用 logo、不暗示背书）；只收集中审批产品，不含规格 / 剂型 / 包装，「授权有效 ≠ 各国在售」。ES: Comisión Europea — Union Register (CC BY 4.0; atribución Comisión Europea / Union Register) + datos de EMA (atribución EMA, sin logotipo); solo autorizaciones centralizadas, sin dosis ni forma farmacéutica. Union Register · CC BY 4.0 · EMA legal notice
- China 中国 / China: 医保药品分类与代码数据库由国家医保局公开；我们未找到开放的再发布许可， 只存事实字段并链回原文，不再发布原始数据表。EN: the NHSA catalogue is public but we found no open licence for redistribution; factual fields only, with links, no bulk republication. ES: el catálogo de la NHSA es público, pero no hemos encontrado una licencia abierta de redistribución; solo campos fácticos y enlaces. 来源 Source: code.nhsa.gov.cn
- Spain 西班牙 / España: © AEMPS — CIMA (Centro de Información online de Medicamentos). Reproduction of AEMPS website contents is authorised provided the source is expressly cited and the date of last update is mentioned (Aviso legal). This is not an open licence; we treat it as "conditional / pending confirmation". 中文：© AEMPS，引用须注明来源与文件最后更新日期， 非开放许可，按「待确认」处理。ES: © AEMPS — se autoriza la reproducción citando expresamente la fuente y la fecha de última actualización (Aviso legal); no es una licencia abierta. Aviso legal · CIMA
- Mexico 墨西哥 / México: COFEPRIS registration lists published on gob.mx carry no stated open licence (status: pending confirmation); we store factual fields only and link to the source. Strengths were back-filled from ISSSTE, PROFECO, HGMGG, INER, INPRFM and SEMAR procurement/price datasets published on datos.gob.mx, licensed CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Gobierno de México — datos.gob.mx, each dataset attributed to its publishing institution). 中文：COFEPRIS 清单未标注开放许可，按「待确认」只存事实 + 链接；规格回填数据来自 datos.gob.mx 的 ISSSTE/PROFECO/HGMGG/INER/INPRFM/SEMAR 数据集（CC BY 4.0，署名发布机构）。 ES: las listas de COFEPRIS no declaran licencia abierta (pendiente de confirmación); solo campos fácticos y enlaces. Los datos de concentración proceden de ISSSTE, PROFECO, HGMGG, INER, INPRFM y SEMAR en datos.gob.mx, con licencia CC BY 4.0. COFEPRIS · datos.gob.mx · CC BY 4.0
- Australia 澳洲 / Australia: PBS Schedule data — Copyright (c) 2024 Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia. (copyright notice retained; content not modified). TGA CMI repository and ARTG Public Summary entries — © Commonwealth of Australia; the TGA copyright notice permits personal/internal non-commercial use of unaltered material and does not permit re-transmission or redistribution without written permission, so we store factual fields only (trade name, active ingredients, ARTG ID, status) with links and publish no full-text CMI/ARTG content. 中文：PBS 保留版权声明且不修改内容；TGA CMI 与 ARTG 明细只取事实字段 （商品名/成分/ARTG ID/状态）并链回原文，不转载 CMI 全文、不再分发原始材料。 ES: datos PBS con aviso de copyright intacto y sin modificaciones; de TGA CMI y ARTG solo almacenamos campos fácticos con enlaces, sin reproducir textos completos. PBS copyright · TGA copyright
- Canada 加拿大 / Canadá: Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD) — re-use for non-commercial purposes with source acknowledgement: © His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Health. 中文：仅非商业再使用，须注明来源（加拿大卫生部）。 ES: reutilización no comercial con mención de la fuente. Terms: DPD
- Taiwan 台灣 / Taiwán: TFDA 「全部藥品許可證資料集」 (data.gov.tw dataset 9122) — Open Government Data Licence v1.0 (OGDL v1.0); attribution: 衛福部食藥署 TFDA (data.gov.tw/license); data as of 2026-10-22 (weekly sync). 中文：依政府資料開放授權條款第1版釋出，須署名「衛福部食藥署 TFDA 全部藥品許可證 資料集」；只存事實欄位；規格由品名解析、置信度有限。ES: licencia OGDL v1.0 con atribución a la TFDA; datos hasta 2026-10-22; concentraciones derivadas de los nombres de producto, con confianza limitada.
- Singapore 新加坡 / Singapur: Health Sciences Authority (HSA) — Listing of Registered Therapeutic Products (data.gov.sg dataset d_767279312753558cbf19d48344577084) under the Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0 (SODL); attribution: Contains information from Listing of Registered Therapeutic Products accessed on 2026-10-28 from Health Sciences Authority (HSA), and made available under the Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0 (licence); no government endorsement implied. 中文：依新加坡開放資料授權條款第 1 版（SODL v1.0）釋出，須署名並鏈回授權頁； 資料截止 2026-08-07（每 6 個月更新）；在冊名單不代表在售；品牌名保留英文原文、不翻譯，中文僅 成分名可譯。ES: contiene información del registro de HSA bajo la SODL v1.0 con atribución; datos hasta 2026-08-07; estar en el registro no implica comercialización.
- WHO ATC/DDD Index: ATC codes and hierarchy reference the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology ATC/DDD Index; the Index itself is copyrighted and is not reproduced. Class/category names shown on ATC pages are editorial or AI-assisted translations, not official WHO labels — the ATC code and WHO hierarchy are authoritative. 中文：ATC 码与层级引自 WHOCC ATC/DDD Index（版权归 WHOCC，不转载索引全文）；本站类别名是编辑/AI 辅助译名，不是 WHO 官方译名，以 ATC 码与 WHO 层级为准。 ES: los códigos y la jerarquía ATC remiten al ATC/DDD Index del WHOCC (con copyright, no se reproduce); los nombres de clase son traducciones editoriales/asistidas por IA, no etiquetas oficiales de la OMS. ATC/DDD Index
- WHO INN / OMS: Contains International Nonproprietary Names (INN) data from the World Health Organization. WHO INN lists are licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (attribution + non-commercial + share-alike); this site is non-commercial, and any mapping table derived from WHO INN lists is shared under the same licence. WHO does not endorse this site. 中文：含世界卫生组织 INN 数据；WHO INN 清单为 CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO（署名 + 非商业 + 相同方式共享）， 基于该清单的派生映射表以同许可共享；WHO 未背书本站。 ES: contiene datos de INN de la Organización Mundial de la Salud; las listas INN tienen licencia CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (atribución + no comercial + compartir igual); los mapeos derivados se comparten con la misma licencia. WHO INN · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
- ChEMBL: ATC mapping derived from ChEMBL (EMBL-EBI), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the derived ATC mapping table is available under the same licence. 中文：基于 ChEMBL 的 ATC 映射 须署名 EMBL-EBI 并按 CC BY-SA 4.0 相同方式共享。ES: mapeo ATC derivado de ChEMBL (EMBL-EBI), licencia CC BY-SA 4.0; la tabla derivada se comparte con la misma licencia. ChEMBL · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Other sources 其他来源: openFDA (public domain / CC0), FDA tall-man list (US Government work), NIDA (US Government work), DEA (Public Domain Mark 1.0), MedlinePlus/NLM (US Government work), NHSBSA dm+d (Open Government Licence v3.0 — Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.), Wikidata P267 (CC0 1.0). ISMP/ECRI LASA lists and WHOCC ATC/DDD index are copyrighted and are not reproduced. 中文：其余来源见许可清单； ISMP/ECRI 与 WHOCC ATC/DDD 有版权，未使用。ES: el resto de fuentes figura en el registro de licencias; las listas ISMP/ECRI y el índice WHOCC ATC/DDD no se reproducen.
Non-commercial notice 非商业声明: this site is public, ad-free and offers no paid data service; if that changes, the NC/conditional sources above must be re-evaluated. 本站公开、无广告、不提供付费数据服务；如未来商业化，上述标非商业/待确认的来源须重新评估。
Why “same name, different drug” happens
The same trademark is held by different companies in different markets, and the formula can differ completely. Verified examples: US Tylenol is single-ingredient acetaminophen 500 mg, while China 泰诺 is a four-ingredient cold medicine and the single-ingredient product is 泰诺林; US Benadryl is diphenhydramine, UK Benadryl is acrivastine; US Gaviscon is an aluminium/magnesium antacid, UK Gaviscon is an alginate raft.
Known gaps
- China has 146,344 chemical-drug registrations, but ~9% resolve only to a China-only substance (no English INN yet), and China’s ATC is stored at level 4. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) are not loaded.
- Strength equivalence stops at level D1 (same salt form); salt–base conversion (D2) and bioavailability judgement (D3) are not implemented.
- Mexico has no strength column in the regulator’s lists; only 29% of products could be back-filled from public catalogues.
- Canada’s DPD has no pack size or price, and many OTC consumer packs were authorised before the DPD’s electronic era, so a shelf product can be missing.
- ATC coverage — two denominators: 47.6% of all substances (6,009 / 12,637) and 67.4% of drug entities (inn_drug, 5,690 / 8,447). The gap is mostly non-drug entities (homeopathic, herbal, food, material), not missing data. ATC data comes from Wikidata P267 (CC0) and ChEMBL (CC BY-SA 4.0); WHOCC’s ATC/DDD index needs a licence and is not used.
Analytics
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Stats: 479,193 products · 12,637 substances · 202,739 name keys · 1,119 aliases (57 hand-curated nicknames, 1,062 folk/class terms) · 22 FDA confused pairs · 23,855 names flagged “same name, different drug”.
Data package · Dataset metadata (schema.org) · SHA-256 checksums · Data dictionary