Pill Identification provided by Drug Identity Information, Inc.

Use of our Service

When not to use our service?
- when the information may be readily obtained from your doctor or pharmacist.
- when the information can easily be found on the Internet and it's reliable
- when the information may be found at the public library
- when time is NOT of the essence - no immediate need for it has occurred.

When to use www.drugID.info?
- when an immediate need for a reliable, trustworthy identification has emerged!

(more) Why tablet and capsule identification is both possible and at times frustratingly difficult to find.

Pill, tablet and capsule identifications are made possible from the markings on them.

Starting in the late 1960s tablets and capsules were made identifiable first by Eli Lilly and Company. By the early 1970s a growing number of drug makers marked their drug products. In 1975 the US-FDA put forth a regulation that all prescription, including narcotics (now known as controlled substances), must be identifiable by imprint. While this regulation was a good first start, vitamin products were explicitly excluded. The regulation did not include at that time over-the-counter (OTCs), veterinary, homeopathic and dietary supplements. Further regulations did not provide the public a means to make and identification, limiting imprint utility to poison control centers.

It took another 20 years before the FDA again addressed tablet and capsule imprints. In 1995 over-the-counter (OTCs), veterinary and homeopathic drug products first started to bear imprints by regulation. Again vitamin and now dietary supplements were explicitly excluded. These later products are also known as 'medical foods' and this entire group of products has burgeoned into a major industry, particularly because of the Internet.

In the same twenty years several new resources for professional use - for doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and law enforcement - became available. Also public libraries made available the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) for the public's use. However, no general resource for the public was provided, by the US- FDA then or subsequently.

From the 1990s the Internet became increasingly the 'go to' place for information about drug products of all kinds, and specifically tablet and capsule imprints. While the Web provides a broad array of information and is widely available to both professional and public users of medical information, it has no 'filter' for significance or reliability. This is particularly the case for tablet and capsule identifications - our main interest.

Finally, a little known fact is that all resources, except drugID.info, discard a portion of the imprint if it is not alphanumeric - logos on imprints are unused information. If the imprint is composed of a logo, with these resources it is not searchable. If the imprint has a logo, it is disregarded and the remaining alphanumeric portion of the imprint may be confused with the same alphanumeric imprint on a drug product without a logo. The best resource for the public and professional alike, according to the University of Florida Drug Information Center, Gainesville, FL, is www.drugid.info.

When you need to know(sm) - Go to drugId.info.