Dose Form Attributes

The following sections discuss the attribute concepts that are used to represent the dose form of concepts in the medicinal product hierarchy.

Describing Dose forms

A Clinical Drug concept has a pharmaceutical dose form, the physical manifestation of a medicinal product that contains the active ingredient substance(s) and inactive ingredient substances that are intended for administration for the patient.  The Clinical Drug concept in the international release is defined by its manufactured dose form, the dose form as the item is presented by the manufacturer into the supply chain.  This may be the same as the administrable dose form, which is the dose form that can be given to the patient after any necessary transformation (such as dissolution or dispersion) has taken place. or it may be different.  Examples of the relationship between manufactured and administrable dose forms and transformation are given below.  Note that both manufactured dose forms and administrable dose forms are types of pharmaceutical dose form.

The exception to the principle of using the manufactured dose form to describe Clinical Drugs in the international release is for oral antimicrobial liquid products (solutions, suspensions) that are supplied by the manufacturer as powders but that undergo dissolution or dispersion prior to dispensing for administration.  The exception is present because of the need to describe these products using a clinically relevant strength reflecting the concentration of the administered liquid.

See also SNOMED CT Editorial Guide - Pharmaceutical Dose Form.