I'm trying to estimate Rx costs using the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) dataset. Essentially I lookup drugs using the RxTerms API, which provides RxCUIs, strengths and forms and different display name for search terms. NADAC gives pricing by unit which may be GM (I'm assuming gram), ML (I'am assuming milliliter) and EA (I'm assuming each e.g. per pill or per vial etc.). The issue here is that sometimes the string provided for strengths and forms from RxTerms is a bit ambiguous. For example:
RxTerms data:
- Name: Insulin analog, lispro (Injectable)
- RxCUI: 242120
- Strength & Form: 100 unt/ml Sol
NADAC data:
- Name: INSULIN LISPRO 100 UNIT/ML VL
- Pricing Unit: ML
- Price Per Unit: 13.171067241379319
Here the pricing is in ML, but the strength is 100 units per ML solution (NADAC name indicates vial but that isn't helpful), but doesn't indicate the quantity held in the vial. I spoke to a GP to see if perhaps this meant the vial held 1 ML but he said he couldn't recall any 1 ML vials he's prescribed. Not definitive but then I compared it to other similar Rxs, like:
RxTerms data:
- Name: Insulin analog, lispro (Injectable)
- RxCUI: 1652639
- Strength & Form: 100 unt/ml Pen Injector 3 ml
NADAC data:
- Name: INSULIN LISPRO 100 UNIT/ML KWIKPEN
- Pricing Unit: ML
- Price Per Unit: 16.962141551724123
Here at least the size is indicated as 3 ML. How can I get the total units of the first example?
I can provide other examples of ambiguous strength & form strings if needed.
