Glossary

General Description

Active Ingredient

The active ingredient(s) within the product. When a product has several active ingredients, where possible, the most significant are listed. The active ingredient is listed to help users identify product names not familiar to them.

Anatomical Therapeutic Classification (ATC)

The Anatomical Therapeutic Classification (ATC), by which products are grouped according to the part of the body they are used to treat, is used in IMS HEALTH audits throughout the world, except the USA and Canada.

There are four hierarchical levels of classification for the therapeutic classes. For example,

Company

Generally, a company is considered an international company made up of all the subsidiaries, the local marketing companies, in which it holds any financial equity. The corporation name will be that in common usage in the pharmaceutical industry.

Sales for a subsidiary will be allocated to the company with the majority share holding. This is in line with international accounting standards. The impact of this is shown below:

Any alterations in corporate affiliation are implemented retroactively. Hence, the historic sales of a newly acquired subsidiary are attributed to the new parent company for all the time periods.

Counting Units

Measurement of sales in non-cash terms. Counting units represent the number of tabs, caps or mls of a product that have been sold.

Country

The country covered by the report. Note that not all channels of distribution are covered in all countries. Please see the "Coverage" section of the information link at the base of the relevant report for details.

Current Data Period

The latest data month available through monthly IMS MIDAS. Self Medication data is sourced through the OTC IMS service which is updated on a quarterly basis.

Ethical

Includes those medicines that are available on prescription or are prescription bound. Includes semi-ethical products, those that can be prescribed and purchased OTC, but does not include non prescription medicines, personal care and patient care products.

Indication

A description of the likely medical use of a drug - using standard terms.

International
Classification of
Diseases

Diseases are classified according to the 10th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) produced by the World Health Organisation (9th Revision in the USA).

MAT

Moving Annual Total (12 months of data). A number following 'MAT' refers to how recent the data is. For example, MAT 1 represents the most recent 12 months in the database.

New Chemical
Entities

A New Chemical Entity (NCE) is a novel chemical substance with pharmacological activity that is launched on the world market for the first time.

New Form Codes

This classification is designed so dosage forms are standardised and can be grouped together and compared across countries according to the EphMrA New Form Code (NFC) classification. IMS HEALTH utilizes the EphMrA International New Form Code classification to describe the method of administration or dosage form for products covered in this service.

New Products

Defined as products launched in the last 24 months for the IMSHEALTH.COM Key Indicators.

Retail

Refers to products distributed through primary care, i.e. High Street Pharmacies - as opposed to secondary care - hospitals and pharmacies in hospitals.

US$ US dollars

All local currencies are converted taking into account varying exchange rates over the period in question, a measure open to currency fluctuations.

Glossary

Product Description

Active Ingredient
(s)/ Molecule(s)

The active ingredients within the product. When a product has several active ingredients, where possible, the most significant are listed. The active ingredient is listed to help users identify product names not familiar to them.

Corporation
Nationality

e.g. USA

Date of Launch and Country

e.g. Aug 1974, GB

Dosage Form

Formulation and strength, e.g. Amoxil Capsules 500mg

International
Manufacturer

e.g. Janssen (links like-named subsidiaries of a corporation internationally)

Name of Local
Manufacturer

e.g. Ethicon, in Italy and Germany

Owning Corporation

e.g. Johnson and Johnson

Pack Size

Size of pack, e.g. Amoxil Capsules 250mg, 500 Capsules

Printed Pack Price

Hospital & Retail

Trade Name

Local Product name, e.g. Clamoxyl in Tunisia or the International Product Name AMOXIL