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TL;DRA raw data licence, in German Rohdatenlizenz, is the commercial permission that lets a customer receive pharmaceutical master and price data in bulk, either as a file feed or through an API, rather than only reading it inside a web application. It is a data licensing concept, not a technical feature, and it is one of the questions professionals ask most often when they move from looking up an article on screen to feeding that data into their own systems.
The reason a raw data licence exists at all sits one layer below any platform. The article master data, prices, distribution status and clinical fields that professionals work with are not owned by the application they read them in. They are licensed from the sources that compile them, for example the IFA for identifiers such as the PZN, ABDATA for the ABDA article master data, and MMI for the Gelbe Liste. Because that underlying data is itself licensed, taking it out of the application in bulk, feeding it into another system, or passing it on to others requires its own permission. A normal subscription pays for reading and working with the data. A raw data licence pays for moving and reusing it.
The cleanest way to see it is as layers of use. Each layer adds a right the previous one does not grant, and each layer usually carries its own commercial terms.
| Use | Normal subscription | Raw data licence |
|---|---|---|
| Read data in the web application | Yes | Yes |
| Search, filter and view single articles | Yes | Yes |
| Small ad hoc export for internal use | Usually within agreed limits | Yes |
| Bulk export of the data set as a file feed | No | Yes |
| Feed the data into another system (ERP, WAWI, webshop) | Not for integration or redistribution | Yes |
| Redistribute or resell the data to third parties | No | Only where the licence explicitly covers it |
Working out which layer you are in comes down to a short sequence of questions.
Often the honest answer is both, and the distinction decides both your cost and what you are allowed to do. There are two different agreements at play, and confusing them is a common source of surprise.
So the question "do we buy from IFA or from a database provider" is usually the wrong framing. The identifier and the base data come from the source either way. What the aggregator adds is the linking, the single access route and the terms under which you may export and integrate.
Export limits are the practical trigger for the whole conversation. Most subscription agreements set a threshold on how much of the data set you may export before the use counts as bulk. Customers often cite a figure in the low thousands of PZN as the point where an export stops being ad hoc and a raw data licence becomes the right instrument. Treat any specific number as a contractual detail to confirm for your own agreement, not as a universal rule, because the threshold is set per contract rather than by a single standard.
pharmazie.com is an aggregator. It reads its pharmaceutical data from licensed sources and offers both a web application for looking data up and a data licensing route for receiving it in bulk.
One honest limitation: a raw data licence from an aggregator lets you use that aggregator's processed product under agreed terms, but it does not replace a licence you take out at the source when your use requires the original data service in its native form. The source licence and the aggregator licence are two different agreements, and heavy redistribution use can need both.
