Tracking drug trade names

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Tracking drug trade names in biomedical
literature
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EMBASE.com offers several options for
monitoring drug products in the biomedical
literature. Because each method entails varying
ways searches are executed, results for each may
vary slightly. Choose the option(s) that best
suit your research needs.
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Use Quick Search for fast and simple queries.
Extensive search matches (or maps) a drug trade
name to its equivalent EMTREE preferred term
(usually its INN generic name). It also
explodes it to retrieve narrower terms (if
any), and also searches keywords from article
titles, abstracts and other database
fields. This option usually retrieves most
literature available in EMBASE.com it may not be
completely comprehensive.
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Preliminary results appear above. Note that the
product name OxyContin has mapped to -- and is
searched as -- the preferred index term
oxycodone. This means that EMBASE.com looks for
papers indexed with oxycodone regardless of
whether the name OxyContin appears or not.
Click on a record title to see its indexing.
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Here, neither OxyContin nor oxycodone appear in
the article abstract. However, it does appear
in the EMTREE drug index terms field because the
drug was discussed in the body of the original
paper therefore this citation is still relevant.
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Advanced Search provides many more search
options, and greater flexibility in
query-building, than Quick Search.
As before, term mapping is automatically enabled
(it can be turned off, if desired). Search also
for synonyms ensures that all possible variants
of a drug name are searched as well as the
preferred drug term currently used for indexing.
Drug names occasionally change over time, and old
(replaced) names are retained in the EMTREE
thesaurus as synonyms. This option provides the
most comprehensive retrieval.
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Note the difference in retrieval when synonym
searching is included.
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You can see the difference in the records
retrieved by this method by excluding them from
the first search set using the Boolean NOT
operator, and then checking a few in detail.
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Here, oxycodone does not appear as an index term,
but it is mentioned peripherally in the abstract.
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Drug Search allows you to take advantage of
special EMBASE drug indexing -- drug subheadings
and routes of administration -- for more focused
searching. This option affords very high search
precision. Note that mapping to preferred drug
nomenclature is automatically enabled here.
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Note slight difference in retrieval from other
search modes. Here, the set from Drug Search
only finds articles with the term oxycodone in
the records index term fields synonyms and
keywords are not searched.
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• The first several options work well when
  comprehensive
• retrieval of a drug topic is needed.
• To find articles on a specific drug product name,
  
• use Field Search to search within the Drug Trade
  Name
• field.
• Along with indexing generic names, EMBASE records
  
• also include drug trade names (plus manufacturer
  names)
• whenever they are mentioned within the text of
  the
• original article.
• This allows you to track individual products in
  published
• research literature
• for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy
  reporting requirements
• for maintaining internal product databases
• for corporate intelligence (tracking competitor
  products)
• and much more

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Check drug trade name from the list of available
data fields to look for the name OxyContin.
Note This option does not enable index term
mapping. Only the selected data field(s) are
searched.
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Consider using look-up tables to find any
spelling variations of drug names. Add to my
Search automatically posts them to the Field
Search box above. For more complete results,
consider including any possible segmented
variations as well Oxy Contin, etc.
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Note the dramatic difference in hits when only
specific trade names are searched.
Click on a title to view indexing.
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Note the preferred generic term oxycodone in the
index fields. Drug trade names (plus drug
manufacturer names and countries, when available)
are displayed separately in their own fields.
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Within EMTREE Tool, you can use a drug product
name to identify its preferred EMTREE index term,
to see other trade names associated with it, and
learn other information about it. Type a trade
name in the Find Term box. The correct index
terms appears as a link below. Follow the link
for more information.
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In the hierarchical EMTREE thesaurus, individual
drugs are grouped within drug families according
to their chemical structure and/or therapeutic
use.
Synonyms appear at the bottom of the page.
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Synonyms include alternate drug and disease
names, non-INN generic nomenclature, trade names
from around the world, chemical compound names,
laboratory codes, enzyme codes, and MeSH subject
headings from MEDLINE. If your search includes
any of these names, it will automatically map to
the matching EMTREE term -- thus ensuring
accurate and complete retrieval.
Links from the drugs Chemical Abstracts Service
registry number(s) out to PubChem for additional
chemical data.
Additional information from Dorlands Medical
Dictionary is available for many terms.
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PubChem, from the National Center for
Biotechnology Information, provides a wealth of
additional data on chemical structures,
properties, mechanisms of action and much more.