NDC lookup and converter

How to look up an NDC

Type the code as it’s printed on the package, hyphens and all, or the 11-digit code from a claim or a pharmacy system. A barcode scan works too. You get the drug, the package it describes, and its labeler, with the date the answer was true.

If you only have 10 digits and no hyphens, you’ll see every way the code can be read. Look each one up: only one is a real listing.

Why one package has several NDCs

An NDC has three parts: labeler, product and package. The printed code is 10 digits, split 4-4-2, 5-3-2 or 5-4-1. Billing and most databases want 11 digits in 5-4-2, so the short part gets a leading zero:

• 0002-1433-80 (4-4-2) becomes 00002-1433-80
• 50580-488-10 (5-3-2) becomes 50580-0488-10
• 12345-6789-1 (5-4-1) becomes 12345-6789-01

Going the other way is where apps get it wrong. Strip the hyphens from a 10-digit code and nobody can tell which part was short. An 11-digit code can also have two or three 10-digit readings, when more than one part starts with a zero. Only the listing knows which one is real.

Barcodes

The barcode on a US package is usually a UPC-A: a 3, the 10-digit NDC, and a check digit. Scan one into the box above and it pulls the NDC out. The hyphens aren’t in the barcode, so you get every reading.

In your app

Send any of these forms to GET /v1/drugs/ndc/{ndc}, with or without hyphens. A bare 10-digit code is matched as it’s listed, never padded by guesswork. You get the package and the drug it belongs to, and the answer says how current it is. Read NDC formats, explained for developers for the long version.