{
  "markdown": "# RxNorm — Standardized Drug Concepts\n\nThe 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.\n\nPart of [Pipeworx](https://pipeworx.io) — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1476+ live data sources.\n\n## Why this matters for AI agents\n\nDrug 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.\n\nThree core flows:\n\n**1. Resolve a name.** \"What's Ozempic?\" → `rxnorm_search({name: \"ozempic\"})` → concept groups by term type (SBD, BN, IN, etc.) with RxCUIs.\n\n**2. Get drug properties.** \"What's this RxCUI?\" → `rxnorm_get_properties({rxcui})` → ingredient name, strength, dose form, brand status.\n\n**3. Drug interactions — not available.** NLM discontinued the RxNav interaction API in January 2024 and nothing replaced it, so this pack has no `rxnorm_interactions` tool and Pipeworx has no drug-drug interaction source. `pharma_safety_report` returns the FDA label's own Drug Interactions section, which documents one drug rather than checking a pair; a drug missing from that text has not been cleared.\n\nFor full drug-safety synthesis combining RxNorm + FDA + ClinicalTrials, use [`compare_entities({type: \"drug\", values})`] or the `pharma_drug_profile` compound.\n\n## Term types (TTYs) — important to understand\n\nRxNorm has multiple concepts per drug, each at different abstraction levels:\n\n| TTY | Meaning | Example |\n|---|---|---|\n| **IN** | Ingredient (canonical generic) | \"semaglutide\" |\n| **PIN** | Precise Ingredient | \"semaglutide sodium\" |\n| **BN** | Brand Name | \"Ozempic\" |\n| **SBD** | Semantic Branded Drug (the marketed product) | \"Ozempic 0.5 mg/0.75 mL pen injector\" |\n| **SCD** | Semantic Clinical Drug (generic equivalent of SBD) | \"semaglutide 0.5 mg/0.75 mL pen injector\" |\n\nFor 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.\n\n## Citable URIs\n\n```\npipeworx://rxnorm/concept/{rxcui}\npipeworx://rxnorm/concept/{rxcui}/interactions\n```\n\nRxCUIs are stable and shareable.\n\n## Update cadence\n\nRxNorm 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.\n\n## Common pitfalls\n\n- **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](https://pipeworx.io/docs/guides/error-recovery).\n- **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.\n- **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.\n- **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.\n- **Discontinued drugs.** Concepts persist after a drug is withdrawn. The `obsolete` flag in the full record tells you whether the drug is currently available.\n\n## Quick Start\n\nAdd to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):\n\n```json\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"rxnorm\": {\n      \"url\": \"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/rxnorm/mcp\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\n### What this endpoint actually serves\n\n`tools/list` at `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/rxnorm/mcp` returns the tools in the table\nabove **plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools** — `ask_pipeworx`,\n`discover_tools`, `search_within`, `remember`/`recall` and the rest of the\ngateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a\nsingle-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the\npack's own. The connection's `initialize` response states its exact scope, and\nis the authoritative answer for a given day.\n\nThis is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a\nscoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via\n`ask_pipeworx`, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a\nsecond MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without\nthem; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,\nconnect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.\n\nOr connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed\ndirectly, instead of just this one's:\n\n```json\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"pipeworx\": {\n      \"url\": \"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\nBoth URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1476+ data sources. The\nonly difference is which pack's tools are listed **directly**; `ask_pipeworx`\nreaches all of them from either one.\n\n## Using with ask_pipeworx\n\nInstead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English —\nthis works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:\n\n```\nask_pipeworx({ question: \"your question about Rxnorm data\" })\n```\n\nThe gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.\n\n## More\n\n- [Docs and guides](https://pipeworx.io/docs)\n- [pipeworx.io](https://pipeworx.io)\n\n## License\n\nMIT\n",
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