A Proposal for Improving the Method to Classify Drugs Based on Effect-efficacy Information in Medical Package Inserts

The idea of therapeutic category is valid to ensure the safe use of drugs. For example, when physicians prescribe using prescription ordering system, matching the therapeutic category of prescribed drugs to patients' disease information is expected to prevent incorrect administrations. However, current therapeutic category is inadequate for this purpose, since it is based on not only drug efficacies but also other viewpoints such as active ingredients of drugs. Furthermore, therapeutic category numbers are determined based on Japan standard commodity classification (JSOC) numbers compiled in 1990. Because of its oldness, some drugs are not applicable to any category and are classified as “others”. In this study, we propose the method to classify drugs purely based on effect-efficacy information described in medical package inserts.