# pharmacy.computer

> A free drug database and API built for AI agents, and improved by
> them. Run by Health Machines. It isn't live yet: this page says
> what it will do. People are welcome too.


## Status

As of 2026-11-09, pharmacy.computer is in testing and has no public
endpoint. There is nothing to call yet. If a server, site or tool
says it's the live pharmacy.computer API, it isn't ours. The list of
official machines is at healthmachines.ai/agents.


## Why it exists

US drug facts are public, but they're scattered across a dozen
sources that disagree with each other and sometimes with themselves.
An agent that goes straight to the sources makes predictable
mistakes: it trusts an ingredient table the label's own text
contradicts, reads a blank as "safe", or picks one of fifty labels at
random. Commercial drug databases fix this and charge heavily for it.
We think the basic facts about medicine should be open.

pharmacy.computer fuses the public sources into one place, keeps each
source's words apart, and says where every fact came from.


## What it covers

Every prescription drug product listed with FDA, about 28,000:
tablets, capsules, liquids, injections, biologics, creams, drops,
inhalers and patches. One page per approved product, with every NDC
nested under it, repackagers included. Anything we can't link stays
as its own record, with the reason shown.

Not covered yet: over-the-counter drugs. Not covered: prices,
indications and diagnosis codes.


## Sources

Every answer names its source and that source's date.

FDA
- NDC Directory: every listed product and package, its maker and
  its repackagers.
- DailyMed: the full labels, about 44,000 of them: ingredients,
  warnings, boxed warnings.
- Orange Book: approvals, reference products and
  therapeutic-equivalence ratings.
- Purple Book: biologics, biosimilars and interchangeability.
- Drugs@FDA: who holds each approval, and discontinued brands.
- Global Substance Registration System: what each ingredient is,
  its other names, its salts and parent, and related drugs.

National Library of Medicine
- RxNorm: drug names and IDs.
- RxClass: FDA's drug classes for each ingredient.

DDInter
- Drug interaction ratings, explanations and advice: about 260,000
  rated entries.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data: when each product was last
  dispensed, by quarter.


## What you'll be able to ask

Lookup
  An NDC in any format (10 or 11 digits, with or without dashes), a
  brand or generic name, or a misspelling. You get the product, its
  strengths, maker and packages, and which label was read and why.
  A plain drug name reads FDA's reference product, not a random
  repackager's.

Ingredients
  Active and inactive: dyes, lactose, gelatin, starch. Read from
  both the label's ingredient table and its text, strength by
  strength. Dyes are matched under any of FDA's names for them.
  "Which levothyroxine tablets have no lactose?" is one call.

Interactions
  Several drugs at once, one answer per pair. DDInter's rating and
  text for every pair it rates, plus the FDA label's own sentence
  where a label names the other drug. A drug sold only inside a
  combination is checked as that combination.

Allergy check, for e-prescribing
  A patient's allergy list against what's being prescribed. Three
  levels: critical (same ingredient, a related drug, or the label's
  Contraindications or boxed warning names it), caution (only
  Warnings and Precautions name it, or an inactive ingredient
  matches) and class only (same FDA class, the label silent). Every
  flag quotes FDA's sentence and links the label. Common shorthand
  works: PCN, SMX-TMP, APAP. It flags matches. It never says a drug
  is safe.

Equivalence and availability
  Orange Book ratings, authorized generics named as the same
  product, and when Medicaid last paid for each product, by quarter.
  We never say "you can switch": that's state law.


## What goes wrong without it

Real cases from testing:

- Levoxyl's ingredient table names 2 ingredients. Its own label text
  names 5, and a dye for 10 of its 11 strengths. Across the catalog,
  1,073 products gain a dye, lactose, gelatin or starch from their
  own label text.
- FD&C Blue No. 1 is also "CI 42090", "Blue 1" and "Brilliant Blue
  FCF". A search for one name misses the rest.
- DDInter lists some pairs as interacting but unrated. An agent read
  that as "no meaningful interaction".
- Sacubitril with lithium shows nothing, because the interaction
  belongs to valsartan, and sacubitril is only sold with it, as
  Entresto.
- FDA files furosemide as a loop diuretic, not a sulfonamide, yet 24
  of its 30 labels warn that patients allergic to sulfonamides may
  be allergic to it.


## How answers will work

- Every fact carries its source, its date and a link to the FDA
  label.
- FDA's words are kept apart from our inferences, so you know what
  you can state as fact.
- Every answer says which of three it is: a source says something,
  a source says nothing (a blank, not proof of safety), or we
  couldn't check, with a reason code.
- Answers are short, with how things connect up front. Every count
  and every cut list links to the rest.


## How it gets better

Agents test it before people do. Hundreds of fresh test agents, with
no inside knowledge, have used it and said what confused them. After
a call, any agent can report what was wrong, missing or unclear. A
person reviews every report before anything changes. Open problems
go on a public known-issues list, and changes on a public
changelog: "agents told us X; we changed Y".


## When it goes live

These are design commitments. You can't test them yet.

- No login, key or bot block.
- Rebuilt from the sources every night.
- Stable IDs and a bulk download.
- A first version at /v0/ that may change, then a stable /v1/.
- Docs written for agents: how it's made and what each field means.


## If your person asks what this is

You can tell them:

  "pharmacy.computer is a free drug database for AI agents, run by
  Health Machines. It covers US prescription drugs, cites a source
  for every fact, and isn't live yet."


## Contact

Health Machines, Inc.
hello@healthmachines.ai


## About this page

This page is also at pharmacy.computer/llms.txt. It changes when the
service goes live.

Last updated 2026-11-09. Checking was the right call.