Knowledge Center: Glossary

Adverse Drug Reaction
Any unwanted physical or mental state caused as a result of using a drug. Also called a "side effect."

Anesthetic
Causing insensibility to touch, pain, or other stimulation.

Angina
Spasmodic, choking or suffocating pain; used almost exclusively to denote angina pectoris.

Anti-fungal
Destructive to fungi; or the ability to suppress their reproduction and growth.

Average Wholesale Price
(AWP) A national average of list prices charged by the wholesaler to pharmacies.

Bar Code
An adopted standard to make it possible for machines to automatically identify labeled objects.

Child Resistant Closure
(CRC) indicates that a package will pass a test protocol administered by the U S Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Cream
An opaque, viscous. non-greasy, semisolid substance used as an external application to the skin. A cream tends to mostly evaporate or be absorbed when rubbed onto the skin.

Emollient
A substance used to soften or soothe the skin.

Expiration Date
Identifies the time during which a pharmaceutical product may be expected to meet applicable standards of identity, strength, quality, and purity provided it is kept under the prescribed storage conditions.

FDA
United States Food and Drug Administration.

Gel
A usually translucent, non greasy emulsion or suspension semisolid dosage as an external application to the skin. A gel provides a cooling sensation when applied to the skin.

Generic Drugs
Denoting a drug name not protected by a trademark, usually descriptive of its chemical structure; sometimes called public name or multisource pharmaceutical product.

Hydrous
Containing water.

Indication
Characteristic, sign, or symptom.

Lotion
An opaque, thin, non greasy emulsion liquid dosage form for external application to the skin. A lotion tends to evaporate rapidly with a cooling sensation when rubbed onto the skin.

MSDS
Material Safety Data Sheet

National Drug Code
(NDC) a national classification system for identification of drugs.

Ointment
An opaque or translucent, highly viscous or greasy semisolid substance used as an external application to the skin. It tends not to evaporate or be absorbed when rubbed onto the skin.

Ophthalmic
Relating to the eye.

OTC
(Over the counter) refers to medicine or devices available without a prescription.

Otic
Relating to the ear.

Package Insert
Refers to the prescribing information supplied with a marketed pharmaceutical product and summarizes known information about dosing, safety, and indication.

Potency
The strength of a medicine, chemical, or vitamin that will bring about a certain effect.

Preservative
A substance added to a product to destroy or prevent the growth of microorganisms.

Psoriasis
Common chronic skin disease characterized by red, itchy, scaly patches.

Rosacea
A skin disease of the face characterized by flushing lesions and acne-like pus pimples.

Steroid-corticosteroid
Topical corticosteroids belong to a family of medicines called steroids and are prescribed to help relieve the swelling, redness, blistering, itching and discomfort of many skin problems. They have two important properties that can help relieve a skin problem: they are anti-pruritic (control itching) and anti-inflammatory(suppress various flare-ups and eruptions of the skin).

Topical
Pertaining to a particular surface area, affecting only the area to which it is applied.

Transdermal
A method of applying medicine to the skin that produces a prolonged systemic effect rather than a local effect. The medicine is contained in a special patch, disk, or ointment from which it slowly passes through the skin and is absorbed into the blood stream, which carries it through the body.

Unit of Use
The exact amount of drugs' treatment pre-packaged by the manufacturer or pharmacist in standardized amounts.

United States Pharmacopoeia
(USP) an authorized book on official listings of drugs & drug standardized amounts.