AI Drug Catalog (starter drug list)

Set up a new pharmacy's stock list in minutes. The AI drafts a starter list of common medicines for your country — generic name, strength, dosage form, pack size, dispensing unit and drug schedule — and you review, edit and import them as inventory items. Everything is a suggestion you approve.

Before you start

• You need the Inventory Master permission.
• Your administrator must have AI enabled on the server. If it isn't, the page shows a notice and you add drugs manually instead.
• Decide which Income (sales) and Cost-of-Goods accounts new drugs should post to — picking an Item Category fills these in for you.

Steps

1. Open Pharmacy → AI Drug Catalog.
2. Choose your Country (it defaults to your pharmacy's own country — change it only if you're sourcing another market's list), how many drugs to suggest, and (optionally) a therapeutic area (e.g. Antibiotics).
3. Click Suggest drugs. A review list appears. Click Suggest again to add more — drugs already listed are skipped.
4. Review every row. Edit any cell. In particular:
   • Barcode — blank on purpose. Scan the real pack so the barcode matches the exact product on your shelf.
   • Schedule (OTC / POM / Controlled) and Rx — check these are right for your country; they drive prescription and controlled-register rules.
   • Cost/unit and Sell/unit — optional. Enter the per-unit cost and selling price and each pack price is worked out for you (a strip of 10 sells for 10×). Leave blank to import at 0 and price the item later.
   • Description — a short factual line (drug class + common use) that shows on the POS tile, receipts and the online menu. Edit or clear it as you like.
   • Batch — leave ticked for medicines so batch/expiry tracking is on.
   • Packaging — the suggested pack hierarchy (e.g. Tablet · Strip×10 · Pack×100 · Carton×1000). On import this becomes the item's units/packages, so you can buy in cartons and dispense in tablets. Pack sizes vary by manufacturer — treat them as a starting point and adjust on the item afterward.
   • Untick any drug you don't stock.
5. Under Import settings, pick an Item category (this fills the accounts), confirm the Income and Cost-of-Goods accounts, and optionally an Inventory asset account and default store/department.
6. Click Import selected. The chosen drugs are created as Inventory items. Successfully imported rows leave the list; any that failed stay so you can retry.

What the AI never sets (and why)

• Barcodes — a barcode maps to one exact pack; a wrong one would scan as the wrong medicine. You scan the real barcode during review.
• Registration numbers (e.g. NAFDAC) — a regulatory identifier must be the real one from the product. Add it later on the item's Pharmacy tab.
• Prices and cost — these are yours to set; the AI doesn't guess them.

Therapeutic classes populate themselves

You don't set up therapeutic classes first. When you import a drug, its therapeutic class (e.g. Antibiotic) is created automatically if it doesn't exist yet and linked to the drug. Over a few imports your Therapeutic Classes list fills in on its own. You can also pick an existing class in the Therapeutic area box to focus a suggestion, or type a new area — either way it just filters what the AI proposes. Manage the list any time under Pharmacy → Therapeutic Classes.

Therapeutic class is the clinical grouping; it is separate from the Item Category you pick under Import settings, which sets the accounting (GL) accounts. A drug has both.

How items are named

Each drug is imported as Brand Strength — e.g. Panadol 500mg. When there's no brand, the generic name is used (Paracetamol 500mg). The dosage form is added only when it isn't the same as the base unit — so a syrup or cream keeps it (Calpol 120mg/5ml Syrup, Lidocaine 2% Cream) because the form (Syrup) differs from the unit (Bottle), while a tablet or capsule doesn't repeat it (Panadol 500mg, not Panadol 500mg Tablet). The unit itself (Tablet, Bottle, Tube) is never in the name — it's carried by the item's units/packages (Tablet · Strip · Carton …), since one item is sold in several units.

This means different brands of the same medicine are separate items — Panadol 500mg and Emzor Paracetamol 500mg are two items, each with its own price and stock, which is how a pharmacy actually stocks them. They share the same generic name (stored on the item), so searching by the active ingredient still finds every brand. Re-importing only skips an item whose name already exists, so you never lose a brand.

Tips

• Import in small batches by therapeutic area — it's easier to review 20 rows than 80.
• Set the drug's generic name correctly on import — allergy and interaction checks match on it later.
• Controlled drugs you import (Schedule = Controlled) automatically appear in the Controlled Drug Register drug list.

Common problems

• "AI drafting isn't configured." → The server has no AI key. Ask your administrator, or add drugs manually under Products & Services.
• Import button is greyed out. → Select at least one drug and pick an Income and a Cost-of-Goods account (a drug is a purchased, sellable item, so both are required).
• A drug imported without its therapeutic class. → The class name didn't match one you've set up. Create the class under Pharmacy first, or set it on the item afterward.
• Duplicate drugs. → Re-running Suggest skips names already in the list, but it can't see items already in inventory — deselect ones you already stock before importing.