Access detailed pharmacological data for over 17,430 drug entries -- including 13,166 small-molecule drugs and 4,264 biotech/biologic products -- through a high-performance SQLite-backed local database. This skill enables AI agents to search by drug name, therapeutic category, mechanism of action, elimination half-life, molecular weight, or structural similarity, providing clinicians and pharmacists with rapid access to comprehensive drug monograph data without relying on external API rate limits.
Quick Install
npx skills add Open-Medica/open-medical-skills --skill drugbank-search
What It Does
- Drug monograph lookup with detailed pharmacological profiles including mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion), therapeutic indications, and contraindications
- Multi-field search by generic name, brand name, therapeutic category (ATC classification), molecular target, or DrugBank accession number with fuzzy matching support
- Pharmacokinetic parameter queries to find drugs by elimination half-life, protein binding percentage, volume of distribution, or bioavailability ranges
- Drug classification browsing through the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) hierarchy, enabling category-based exploration of drug classes
- Local SQLite backend for high-performance offline queries with sub-millisecond response times, no external API dependency, and no rate limiting
Clinical Use Cases
- Formulary comparison: A hospital pharmacist evaluating therapeutic alternatives for a drug shortage can search all drugs within the same ATC class, compare half-lives and dosing intervals, and identify suitable substitutions with matching pharmacokinetic profiles.
- Pharmacology education: A medical student studying antihypertensives can browse the entire class hierarchy, compare mechanisms of action across ACE inhibitors vs ARBs vs calcium channel blockers, and review key PK parameters side-by-side.
- Drug development research: A pharmaceutical researcher can query the database for all approved kinase inhibitors, examine their molecular targets, and identify gaps in the therapeutic landscape for novel drug candidates.
- Clinical pharmacokinetics consultation: A clinical pharmacologist adjusting renal dosing can quickly look up the fraction of drug eliminated renally, protein binding, and active metabolite profiles to guide dosage modifications.
Safety & Evidence
- Safety Classification: Safe -- This skill provides read-only access to curated drug reference data. It does not prescribe medications, calculate doses for individual patients, or interact with electronic health records. Drug information is sourced from peer-reviewed pharmacological databases.
- Evidence Level: High -- DrugBank is a widely cited, peer-reviewed pharmaceutical knowledge base (cited in over 18,000 publications). Data undergoes expert curation by pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists at the University of Alberta.
Example Usage
Look up pharmacokinetic parameters for a specific drug:
Search DrugBank for lisinopril. Show me its mechanism of action,
elimination half-life, protein binding, renal clearance percentage,
and all available brand names.
Find drugs within a therapeutic category by half-life:
Search for all beta-adrenergic blocking agents (ATC class C07)
with an elimination half-life greater than 12 hours. Sort by
half-life descending and include bioavailability data.
Technical Details
- Category: Pharmacy
- Author: OMS Contributors (original: openpharma-org)
- License: MIT
- Data Source: DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0 for academic use)
- Backend: SQLite database with indexed columns for fast querying
- Coverage: 17,430+ drug entries, 13,166 small molecules, 4,264 biotech drugs
- Dependencies: SQLite3 client, Python (optional for advanced queries)
References
- DrugBank Online: https://go.drugbank.com/
- Wishart DS, et al. "DrugBank 5.0: a major update to the DrugBank database." Nucleic Acids Research. 2018;46(D1):D1074-D1082. doi:10.1093/nar/gkx1037
- ATC/DDD Classification System (WHO): https://www.whocc.no/atc_ddd_index/
- DrugBank Open Data: https://go.drugbank.com/releases/latest#open-data
This skill is part of Open Medical Skills, a curated marketplace of medical AI skills maintained by physicians for physicians and the healthcare industry.