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National Library of Medicine Technical BulletinNational Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin

Table of Contents: 2019 MAY–JUNE No. 428

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RxNorm May 2019 Release Available

RxNorm May 2019 Release Available. NLM Tech Bull. 2019 May-Jun;(428):b5.

2019 May 09 [posted]

The RxNorm May full monthly release is available for download as of Monday, May 6, 2019. The May release contains the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) unique identifiers from the 2019AA UMLS Release Files. This release also includes new Qualitative Distinction modifiers.

Qualitative Distinction (QD) modifiers allow flexibility in the RxNorm model to create a new RxNorm Concept Unique Identifier (RXCUI) when needed. The new QD modifiers beginning with "NDA" (New Drug Application) are included to distinguish certain albuterol products. The addition of the new QD "Pulmonary Hypertension" also helps highlight tadalafil products specifically indicated to treat pulmonary hypertension.

The May 2019 release includes new QDs for the following active concepts:

RXCUI TTY String
2123111 SCD NDA020503 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler
746763 SBD NDA020503 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler [Proventil]
2123076 SCD NDA020983 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler
859088 SBD NDA020983 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler [Ventolin]
801092 SCD NDA020983 60 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler
801095 SBD NDA020983 60 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler [Ventolin]
2123072 SCD NDA021457 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler
745752 SBD NDA021457 200 ACTUAT Albuterol 0.09 MG/ACTUAT Metered Dose Inhaler [ProAir]
2123194 SCD Pulmonary Hypertension tadalafil 20 MG Oral Tablet
849866 SBD Pulmonary Hypertension tadalafil 20 MG Oral Tablet [Adcirca]
2110455 SBD Pulmonary Hypertension tadalafil 20 MG Oral Tablet [Alyq]

For each Semantic Clinical Drug (SCD) or Semantic Branded Drug (SBD) with a QD, there is an associated attribute in RXNSAT with the attribute name (ATN) of "RXN_QUALITATIVE_DISTINCTION". The May release contains the following new attribute values (ATV) to match the QD strings found in the SCD and SBD normalized names:


  • NDA020503
  • NDA020983
  • NDA021457
  • Pulmonary Hypertension
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