DrugBank Online is a free database that provides information on FDA-approved drugs and drug targets.  The database started in 2006 in Dr. David Wishart’s lab at the University of Alberta, Canada. The database is now managed by OMx Personal Health Analytics and the University of Alberta (Wishart et al., 2018).

DrugBank is described as a “… bioinformatics–cheminformatics database with a strong focus on quantitative, analytic or molecular-scale information about both drugs and drug targets” (Wishart, 2006, p. D669). The initial database was compiled with data from textbooks, journal articles, electronic databases, in-house databases and web-based programs (Wishart, 2006).  DrugBank Online is regularly reviewed and updated with data from the primary literature. Several software tools are used to assist with the data verification process (Wishart, 2006). Some restricted drug datasets are also available to academics for free; commercial users need a paid license.

The DrugBank Online database includes approved drugs, nutraceuticals, and experimental drugs. Each drug has an extensive DrugCard that includes a summary, brand names, generic names, background information, pharmacological information, drug and food interactions, properties, drug targets and more. External links to other data sources are also included. Each DrugCard (Fig. 1) has a left-hand navigation menu for easy access to the different sections. Some drugs in the database have experimental spectral data and many have predicted spectra available. A new feature in version 5.0 is the addition of pill pictures (Fig. 2) for several drugs (Wishart et al., 2018).

Different options are available for navigating the database. The top menu includes a Browse and Search option as well as the Interaction Checker (Fig. 3). The browse options include drug names, categories, pathways, drug reactions, drug classification, drug targets as well as pharmaco-omic choices. Several search options are also available. It is possible to search the database by chemical structure, molecular weight, sequence, drug & food interactions, pharmaco-omics as well as for spectral data.

It is possible to search for similar chemical structures, substructures and exact structures and combine the search with a drug type. The Sequence Search option searches for known drug target sequences included in DrugBank. The advanced search option allows users to combine different field searches. Wildcards (*) and phrase searching with quotation marks are also possible. Several different filtering options are available such as the ability to limit searches for Biotech Drugs to market availability in the United States, Canada or the European Union.

The Interaction Checker allows users to check for drug or food interactions for up to 5 drugs and receive limited results. For additional features, a commercial product is available for a fee.

The DrugBank Online web interface is easy to use and mobile-friendly. It has several advanced features that would be of interest to chemists and pharmacists, but the database would also be useful to members of the public and physicians.

References

Wishart, D. S. (2006). DrugBank: A comprehensive resource for in silico drug discovery and exploration. Nucleic Acids Research, 34(90001), D668–D672. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkj067

Wishart, D. S., Feunang, Y. D., Guo, A. C., Lo, E. J., Marcu, A., Grant, J. R., Sajed, T., Johnson, D., Li, C., Sayeeda, Z., Assempour, N., Iynkkaran, I., Liu, Y., Maciejewski, A., Gale, N., Wilson, A., Chin, L., Cummings, R., Le, D., … Wilson, M. (2018). DrugBank 5.0: A major update to the DrugBank database for 2018. Nucleic Acids Research, 46(D1), D1074–D1082. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkx1037

Other Resources

Drugbank tutorial: Browse & search drugs. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le88mJ-tdb8

Marie Speare, Sciences and Technology Librarian at The University of Manitoba

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