Medication and/or Supplement Database

Quantified Self Apps & Tools
1

I’m looking for a high-quality “Medication Database” for use in the backend of my software, similar to my desire for a food database(http://forum.quantifiedself.com/thread-food-database).

The database would hopefully contain
Prescription Medications
Over-the-Counter Medications
Supplements (I’m not betting on this, though)

I want to download and import this database for use in my app. I’ve dug up a few options that I don’t like very much, but am really hoping someone can point to a best database out there.

Free or Paid is OK. Also, an API could be OK, but a database might be preferable.

Much thanks!
Sean

2

As far as I know there isn’t one good database that tells you everything.

For your purposes the FDA database might http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/InformationOnDrugs/ucm075234.htm might be a good fit.

If you want to read information from scientific papers http://www.biosemantics.org/index.php?page=Jochem is a good website that gives you alternative names for drug compounds.

3

Looks promising:

[quote]13. Can I get a copy of the Drugs@FDA database?

Yes. Please see the page “Drugs@FDA Data Files” for information about the database tables and a link to the compressed file for downloading. The file does not include the scripts (programming) we use to produce the online version of Drugs@FDA. We are providing this technical information for users who are familiar with working with databases or spreadsheets.[/quote]

There is also Drug Information Portal. It would be a neat project to combine the two, but be careful not to get indicted like Aaron Swartz for downloading too many scientific papers (punishable by 35 years in prison).

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DrugBank and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UpToDate .

4

[quote]There is also Drug Information Portal. It would be a neat project to combine the two, but be careful not to get indicted like Aaron Swartz for downloading too many scientific papers (punishable by 35 years in prison).
[/quote]In this case the American Chemical Society is the only one that might come after you :wink:
They think that they own CAS numbers.

5

This is a little late, so probably discovered these already, but…
there is an FTP download link here for all FDA Drug Labels: http://labels.fda.gov/

This is from FDA’s DailyMed, which is most labels (not all) with download links to Zip files for Rx drugs, OTC drugs, homeopathic drugs. http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/downloadLabels.cfm

I believe DailyMed, and maybe both sources, should be formatted following FDA’s XML schema.