You can of course piece the information together, but it is not that fast or easy in terms of usability.
Market Access, pharmaceutical manufacturer
The answer to a specialist question usually exists. It just sits in four or five stocks that know nothing about each other. The effort is not in the lookup but in the assembly, and it recurs every single time.
The real effort comes later, being forwarded to other portals, requesting access.
Market Access, pharmaceutical manufacturer
Logins, passwords, different interfaces, different field names for the same thing. The bottleneck is rarely data quality. It is the number of places you have to search before you can even begin to compare.
Excel is somehow still the tool people use most.
Supply Chain, pharmaceutical manufacturer
That is not a criticism but a consequence: when several sources have to meet, the spreadsheet becomes the lowest common denominator. The price is a state that ages from the moment of export, and a time series that carries no reference date.
Article master, prices, product information, substances, interactions, availability and benefit assessment converge in a single query, anchored to the Pharmazentralnummer.
What you need depends on what you are deciding. Four data classes cover most cases, each with the fields that matter in practice.
A pharmaceutical database for professionals that brings 25+ sources into one search. Article master, prices, product information, active ingredients, interactions and supply shortages in one place instead of five separate reference works. This page sets out scope, fields, delivery routes and update cadence, so you can judge whether the data fits your question before you talk to anyone.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is included | 25+ pharmaceutical databases in one search |
| Which data classes | article master, prices, product information, active ingredients, interactions, availability, benefit assessment |
| Geographic coverage | drug and product data from 50+ countries. Price data is DACH-focused |
| How to obtain it | interface, export or API |
| Update cadence | daily for article master, shortages and notices, bi-weekly for price updates |
| Audience | healthcare professionals only, not patients |
| Entry price | from 135 EUR per month, net plus VAT |
What you need depends on what you are deciding. Four classes cover most cases.
| Data class | Core fields | Typical question |
|---|---|---|
| Article master | PZN, trade name, dosage form, pack size, marketing authorisation holder, distribution status, successor PZN | Which product sits behind this number, and is it still carried? |
| Prices | price per price type with validity date, reference price, rebate contract flag, margins under the AMPreisV | What does the article cost at which trade level, and since when? |
| Product information | indication, contraindication, posology, adverse reactions, ATC code, substance and strength | What does the approved SmPC say, structured rather than as a PDF? |
| Availability | reported supply shortage, period, affected PZN, alternatives by substance and strength | Can the article be sourced, and if not, what qualifies as a substitute? |
The most frequently overlooked field is the validity date on the price. Without it there is no way to say which state a figure refers to, and every time series becomes contestable. The second is the successor PZN: an article that leaves the market does not disappear from historical prescriptions and claims.
| Interface | Export | API | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fits when | people research and settle individual cases | one state is analysed | a system asks at runtime |
| Output | result list and detail view | CSV, Excel, JSON or XML | a response per call |
| Set-up effort | none | low | integration and error handling |
| Typical mistake | single lookups for a list question | the state ages unnoticed | calls for a job that was an export |
A rule of thumb: if the result gets read, the interface or an export is right. If it only gets ingested, you meant the API. What an integration looks like in detail is covered in pharmaceutical data APIs.
Currency is a process, not a product feature. Two rhythms run side by side:
For time series three things follow: a reference date on every row, the PZN as the stable key rather than the trade name, and an explicit flag for departures. Build that in and you can compare. Retrofit it and the series starts over.
Not for patients. The content addresses healthcare professionals and does not replace medical or pharmaceutical advice.
Not a commitment on availability. Distribution status and deliverability are two different things. An article can be in distribution and still not be obtainable. Deliverability is answered by the supplier, not by a master record.
Not a source for negotiated terms. The database carries regulated and listed prices. What you agreed individually with a supplier is not in there and cannot be.
Not a substitute for a licence check. What you may do with the data, meaning analyse it, hold it in your own system or pass it to third parties, is governed by the contract, not by the access.
The official, authoritative basis for medicinal products authorised in Germany is the article master of the Informationsstelle für Arzneispezialitäten, the IFA GmbH. The further sources that converge in the search build on it. How the identifier, its allocation and the record relate to one another is explained in IFA and the German article master.
Why the German market needs several sources for one question in the first place, and how the clinical, commercial and logistical layers differ, is covered in Germany drug database comparison for professionals. That page answers how it works. This one answers what you get.
Portal access starts at 135 EUR per month, net plus VAT. The exact price depends on the number of seats and the data scope. The fastest way to judge the fit is to bring your own PZN list and have it matched against the stock: book a demo.
This content is intended for healthcare professionals and does not constitute medical advice. Last reviewed: September 2026.
More clarity, faster research, and faster decision-making.
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