Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®)

RxNorm Release Notes

August Release - 08/01/2016

This release of RxNorm is consistent with the 2016AA UMLS Metathesaurus release. For additional information about RxNorm releases, including scripts for loading the RxNorm data into Oracle and MySQL databases, read the RxNorm technical documentation.

Sources

The following sources have been updated since the previous RxNorm release:

Source NameSABVersion
Gold Standard Drug Database GS GS_2016_07_12
Medi-Span Master Drug Data Base MDDB MDDB_2016_07_06
Multum MediSource Lexicon MMSL MMSL_2016_07_01
Micromedex RED BOOK MMX MMX_2016_07_05
FDA Structured Product Labels MTHSPL MTHSPL_2016_07_19
FDB MedKnowledge (formerly NDDF Plus) NDDF NDDF_2016_07_06
Veterans Health Administration National Drug File VANDF VANDF_2016_06_16

 

The following sources have not been updated in this release:

Source NameSABVersion
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System ATC ATC_2016
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) MSH MSH2016_2016_02_26
CMS Formulary Reference File MTHCMSFRF MTHCMSFRF_2014
Veterans Health Administration National Drug File - Reference Terminology NDFRT NDFRT_2016_07_05
NDFRT FDASPL relationships NDFRT_FDASPL NDFRT_FDASPL_2016_07_05
NDFRT FMTSME relationships NDFRT_FMTSME NDFRT_FMTSME_2016_07_05
US Edition of SNOMED CT (drug information) SNOMEDCT_US SNOMEDCT_US_2016_01_31

Data Changes

Qualitative Distinction
The RxNorm model revolves around the active ingredient, strength, and dose form (i.e., TTY=SCD) for drug products. There are some cases, as identified by those using RxNorm in eprescribing systems and drug formularies, where the RxNorm model groups drugs that, in practice, need to have separate RXCUIs. To allow flexibility in the RxNorm model to handle such cases, RxNorm now includes a Qualitative Distinction (QD) modifier that can be applied as a prefix to SCD and SBD normalized names. Drugs that include the QD have a different RXCUI than the same drugs without the QD, and information about these drugs, including drug descriptions and NDCs, have been split into the appropriate RXCUI.

Here are the concepts with QDs in the August release:

RXCUITTYString
1801282 SBD Emollient hydrocortisone acetate 25 MG/ML / Pramoxine hydrochloride 10 MG/ML Topical Cream [Pramosone]
1801281 SCD Emollient hydrocortisone acetate 25 MG/ML / Pramoxine hydrochloride 10 MG/ML Topical Cream
1801283 SCD Emollient Fluocinonide 0.5 MG/ML Topical Cream
848951 SBD Sugar-Free Cholestyramine Resin 4000 MG Powder for Oral Suspension [Prevalite]
1801280 SBD Sugar-Free Cholestyramine Resin 4000 MG Powder for Oral Suspension [Questran]
1801279 SCD Sugar-Free Cholestyramine Resin 4000 MG Powder for Oral Suspension
993524 SBD Smoking Cessation 12 HR Bupropion Hydrochloride 150 MG Extended Release Oral Tablet [Buproban]
993954 SBD Smoking Cessation 12 HR Bupropion Hydrochloride 150 MG Extended Release Oral Tablet [Zyban]
1801289 SCD Smoking Cessation 12 HR Bupropion Hydrochloride 150 MG Extended Release Oral Tablet
1801295 SBD Microencapsulated Potassium Chloride 20 MEQ Extended Release Oral Tablet [Klor-Con]
1801294 SCD Microencapsulated Potassium Chloride 20 MEQ Extended Release Oral Tablet
1801299 SBD Microencapsulated Potassium Chloride 10 MEQ Extended Release Oral Tablet [Klor-Con]
1801298 SCD Microencapsulated Potassium Chloride 10 MEQ Extended Release Oral Tablet

For each SCD or SBD with a QD, there is an associated attribute in RXNSAT with the attribute name (ATN) of 'RXN_QUALITATIVE_DISTINCTION'. The August release contains the following attributes to match the QD strings found in the SCD and SBD normalized names:

Data Counts

Term Type or AttributeNumber
Active GPCKs372
Active BPCKs415
Active SCDs18751
Active SBDs10656
Active RXNORM MINs3983
Active RXNORM INs11037
Active RXNORM PINs2569
Active RXNORM BNs6346
Active RXNORM DFs117
  
Obsolete GPCKs144
Obsolete BPCKs129
Obsolete SCDs16288
Obsolete SBDs10171
Obsolete RXNORM MINs0
Obsolete RXNORM INs0
Obsolete RXNORM PINs0
Obsolete RXNORM BNs9544
Obsolete RXNORM DFs55
Editor-suppressed SCDs1520
Editor-suppressed SBDs1315
Source-asserted NDCs1210567
Distinct source-asserted NDCs569929
SAB=RXNORM NDCs217625
Distinct SAB=RXNORM NDCs217625

Last Reviewed: June 6, 2016