@pipeworx/rxnorm

Connect: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/rxnorm/mcp · Install: one-click buttons

Tools: 5

The National Library of Medicine’s standardized drug nomenclature. Every prescription, OTC drug, and ingredient in the US healthcare system has an RxCUI (a stable concept ID). RxNorm normalizes drug naming chaos: “Tylenol” and “acetaminophen” and “APAP” all resolve to the same ingredient concept. Free, no auth.

Why this matters for AI agents

Drug data is notoriously messy. Brand names, generic names, salt forms, dose strengths, dosage forms — same molecule, dozens of strings. RxNorm gives you canonical IDs you can use to cross-reference FDA data, drug interaction databases, EHR systems, and clinical trials.

Three core flows:

1. Resolve a name. “What’s Ozempic?” → rxnorm_search({name: "ozempic"}) → concept groups by term type (SBD, BN, IN, etc.) with RxCUIs.

2. Get drug properties. “What’s this RxCUI?” → rxnorm_get_properties({rxcui}) → ingredient name, strength, dose form, brand status.

3. Drug interactions. “What does this interact with?” → rxnorm_interactions({rxcui}) → known drug-drug interactions with severity.

For full drug-safety synthesis combining RxNorm + FDA + ClinicalTrials, use [compare_entities({type: "drug", values})] or the pharma_drug_profile compound.

Term types (TTYs) — important to understand

RxNorm has multiple concepts per drug, each at different abstraction levels:

For cross-source linking, always prefer the IN (ingredient) RxCUI when one exists. Brand drugs in different countries have different SBDs; the IN is global. resolve_entity({type: "drug"}) picks the canonical RxCUI in priority order IN > PIN > BN > SBD > first available.

Citable URIs

pipeworx://rxnorm/concept/{rxcui}
pipeworx://rxnorm/concept/{rxcui}/interactions

RxCUIs are stable and shareable.

Update cadence

RxNorm publishes monthly updates. New drugs appear within a month of FDA approval; deprecated products are flagged but kept in the database for historical lookup. Pipeworx caches with a 24-hour TTL.

Common pitfalls

• Search returns SBD-only for brand queries. Searching “Ozempic” returns Semantic Branded Drug concepts, not the ingredient. To get to “semaglutide,” either search the generic name directly or call rxnorm_related({rxcui, tty: "IN"}) on a brand RxCUI. The latter currently has bugs in some configurations — see error recovery.
• Spelling matters more than you’d think. “metformin hydrochloride” and “metformin HCl” return slightly different concept sets. The search is forgiving for common abbreviations but exact for less common ones.
• NDCs are different. National Drug Codes (NDCs) are FDA-issued package-level identifiers, not RxCUIs. Use rxnorm_ndc({rxcui}) to bridge if you need NDC for prescription-fill data.
• Combination products. A drug like “Kombiglyze” contains metformin + saxagliptin. Searching “metformin” may surface combination products as the top hit, which isn’t what you want for ingredient-level analysis. Filter for SCD or IN, not just take the first result.
• Discontinued drugs. Concepts persist after a drug is withdrawn. The obsolete flag in the full record tells you whether the drug is currently available.

Tools

• rxnorm_search — Search for medications by brand or generic name. Returns RxCUI IDs, names, synonyms, and term types (BN=brand, IN=ingredient, SBD=dose form). Start here to find a drug’s unique ID.
• rxnorm_get_properties — Get full medication details by RxCUI ID. Returns name, synonyms, term type, language, and status. Use after rxnorm_search to retrieve complete drug information.
• rxnorm_related — Find related medications by RxCUI — brands, generics, ingredients, and dose forms. Maps between brand and generic alternatives. Use to compare drug options.
• rxnorm_interactions — Check drug-drug interactions by RxCUI. Returns interaction pairs and severity levels. Use to identify safety risks when combining medications.
• rxnorm_ndc — Get NDC (National Drug Code) identifiers by RxCUI. Returns unique US pharmacy codes for billing and fulfillment. Use for prescription processing or inventory lookup.