# Normalizing Rxnorm

Normalizes drug mentions extracted by OpenMed to RxNorm RxCUIs using the free public...

- Repository: https://github.com/maziyarpanahi/openmed (5755 stars)
- Category: Marketing
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-10-31
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill normalizing-rxnorm -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill normalizing-rxnorm -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill normalizing-rxnorm -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add maziyarpanahi/openmed --skill normalizing-rxnorm -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add maziyarpanahi/openmed`

## Description

Normalizes drug mentions extracted by OpenMed to RxNorm RxCUIs using the free public RxNav/RxNorm REST API. Use when the user wants to code, standardize, or de-duplicate medication names, resolve a brand/generic/ingredient to a stable RxCUI, link strength+dose-form to an SCD/SBD, attach NDCs, or build a US Core Medication resource. Trigger keywords: RxNorm, RxCUI, RxNav, drug normalization, medication coding, NDC, ingredient, SCD, SBD, brand vs generic, getApproximateMatch. Pairs after OpenMed NER: consume Pharmaceutical/Chemical entities from openmed.analyze_text and map each drug span to an RxCUI. RxNorm and RxNav are fully public and free, no API key, no license barrier, the lowest-friction terminology in this set.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Normalizing drug mentions to RxNorm

Map free-text medication mentions that OpenMed extracts to **RxNorm**, the U.S.
National Library of Medicine's normalized drug nomenclature. The unit of meaning
is the **RxCUI** (RxNorm Concept Unique Identifier): a stable integer that ties
together brand, generic, ingredient, strength, and dose form.

RxNorm and the **RxNav REST API** are **fully public and free**: no API key, no
license agreement, no rate-limit registration for normal use. Of every skill in
this terminology batch, this one has the highest value-to-friction ratio, start
here when grounding medications.

## When to use

- A clinical note names drugs ("metformin 500 mg", "Lipitor", "amox/clav") and
  you need one stable code per drug for storage, analytics, or interoperability.
- You must distinguish **ingredient** ("metformin", `IN`) from a prescribable
  product, **SCD** (Semantic Clinical Drug, generic) or **SBD** (Semantic Brand
  Drug), e.g. "metformin 500 MG Oral Tablet".
- You need to de-duplicate brand/generic synonyms onto one concept.
- You need **NDC** codes (package-level) for a product, or a US Core
  `Medication`/`MedicationRequest` coded with RxNorm.

If the source text is non-English or you need ATC/SNOMED links instead, see
`mapping-to-snomed`; RxNorm itself is U.S.-centric.

## Quick start (real RxNav API calls)

Base URL: `https://rxnav.nlm.nih.gov/REST`. No auth. JSON via `?...&...` paths
ending in nothing or `.json` depending on endpoint; the REST root returns XML by
default, so request JSON explicitly.

```python
import requests

BASE = "https://rxnav.nlm.nih.gov/REST"

def rxcui_for(name: str) -> str | None:
    """Exact-match RxCUI lookup for a normalized drug name."""
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/rxcui.json", params={"name": name}, timeout=10)
    r.raise_for_status()
    ids = r.json().get("idGroup", {}).get("rxnormId", [])
    return ids[0] if ids else None

The rest: https://github.com/maziyarpanahi/openmed/blob/HEAD/skills/normalizing-rxnorm/SKILL.md