A comprehensive information resource

Pharmaceutical companies, clinical trial organisations and drug regulatory authorities worldwide rely on the World Health Organization's Drug Dictionary to identify drug names, active ingredients and therapeutic use.

The World Health Organization Drug Dictionary (WHO-DD) is an international catalogue of drugs, listing proprietary and non-proprietary names of medicinal products as well as active ingredients. The majority of entries refer to prescription-only products, but some are over-the-counter or pharmacist-dispensed drugs.

The dictionary is used for decoding and analysing clinical research data - both pre- and post-marketing. In essence, it translates a drug name into useful information, which is then used for analysis. Among the entries are biotech and blood products, diagnostic substances as well as contrast media.

Benefits offered by the WHO-DD include:

• Consistent, quality-assured and up-to-date information
• A hierarchical structure that allows easy and flexible data retrieval and analysis at different levels of precision
• Chemical and therapeutic groupings – using the WHO drug record number system and the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification
• A computerised software-independent format for easy implementation

Through the hierarchical ATC it is possible to analyse data by comparing products containing the same substances. This structure also enables the aggregation of statistics at different levels and the compilation of line listings.

Updating entries

Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is the WHO-DD's maintenance organisation and provides a range of services related to the catalogue. Information routinely recorded by UMC specialist staff refers to all drugs and medicinal substances, regardless of their causing an adverse drug reaction (ADR). The dictionary includes drugs mentioned in all international ADR reports submitted to the WHO programme since its foundation in 1968, as well as a large number of entries requested by users.

An increasing number of companies and regulators submit files with product data once their products are launched on the market. This significantly reduces the time it takes to get entries into the dictionary. In addition, products and substances registered by the FDA and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) are routinely recorded.

UMC has recently begun collaborating with IMS Health – an organisation that collects global drug-utilisation data. As a result of this project, IMS product information is loaded directly into the WHO-DD. This IMS link will further improve the dictionary through its up-to-date, comprehensive data from 65 countries worldwide.

This new product will be available for delivery from 1 June 2005. The new product will be marketed as WHO Drug Dictionary Enhanced. To read more, visit
www.umc-products.com/enhanced.

In recent years, the UMC has extensively worked on developing a classification of herbals. The WHO-DD already contains information on commonly used herbals, but a specific WHO Herbal Drug Dictionary will now be launched during the autumn of 2005, which will include both traditional medicines and herbals.

Worldwide use

For hundreds of organisations around the world, the WHO-DD is a fundamental desk reference. The UMC aims to meet the demands of all users. Consequently, it responds quickly to requests for new entries or to other useful suggestions for services, tools and modifications that are compatible with the catalogue's fundamental structure.

To allow customers to make constructive comments on the form and content of the dictionary, a user group has been established that meets annually at major international conferences. In 2005, WHO DD training will also be introduced.