Book Review

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Organic Chemical Drugs and Their Synonyms

Martin Negwer and Hans-Georg Scharnow, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, vol. 1 pp. xvii + 882, vol. 2 pp. 883–1704, vol. 3 pp. 1705–2494, vol. 4 2495–3322, vol. 5 pp. 3323–4228, vol. 6 pp. 4229–4680, price £875 for 6 volumes, ISBN 3-527-30247-6. Search PubMedThe eighth edition of this reference work contains 16,000 chemically unique drug substances with approximately 130,000 synonyms including non-proprietary names, brand names and alphanumeric codes. This updated version contains in excess of 4000 new entries over the previous edition. A range of indices are assembled which allow easy working with a list of drug substances and are useful for finding substances chemically related to each other.

The first four volumes of this book consist of a list of drug substances arranged by increasing molecular formula. A number of substances without a definite molecular formula are included in a list at the end of volume four, these compounds are arranged in alphabetical order of the most-common non-proprietary name.

Each entry is set out in a standard format and contains the following information:

i. A consecutive entry number
ii. Molecular formula
iii. CAS registry number
iv. Chemical structure
v. Systematic names
vi. Information on salts of the acid or base including CAS number for these versions
vii. Synonyms
viii. Information on the therapeutic use

The salts, hydrates or solvates of some of the title compounds are cited in separate entries under the main entry and are distinguished by a number connected to the consecutive number by a hyphen.

The section on synonyms includes the names adopted by various institutions e.g. British Approved Name, common trivial names, names protected by trademarks, experimental names (usually letter and digit sequences) and abbreviations. One or two asterisks denote the international non-proprietary names proposed and definitely recommended by the World Health Organisation respectively. The generic name for a drug substance is usually set in italics to allow it to be distinguished from the preparation oriented name (trademark protected). The information of the therapeutic use of the drug substance is not a comprehensive guide but is intended as a brief guide.

The indices for the work are in the fifth and sixth volumes. The fifth volume contains the alphabetical index of synonyms and the corresponding reference number of the drug. The sixth volume contains three indices; a group index, a reference section of the group index and a CAS Number index. The group index contains a list of keyword chemical functional groups and the entry numbers for drug substances that contain the relevant groups. The keywords are designated a letter-digit combination. The reference section of group index contains a list of the entry numbers and the corresponding letter-digit combinations for keywords. The synonym index is straightforward to use and allows the structure of a drug or systematic name to be easily found from either the generic names or the tradenames. The group index is less useful; although it is easy to see if a functional group is contained within any drugs, the correlation of structural motifs with therapeutic use would be time consuming. A simple index of therapeutic use would probably have been a useful addition to the work.

In the past 15 years the use of computers has become more routine and the searching of chemical information is no longer a specialist occupation. As scientists have gained more access to searchable sources e.g. SciFinder™ and the World Drug Index the value of hard-copy reference works like Negwer has diminished. A significant improvement to the eighth edition would have been the inclusion of a searchable CD-ROM within the package. The information was available in this format for the previous edition but did appear a number of years after the initial publication.

The reference work is expensive and although a potential useful addition to any library I doubt its usage would justify its cost. I think many Medicinal Chemists working within industry at the present time would use other sources of reference available to them before using ‘Negwer’.

Diane Coe
Stevenage, UK

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