Salts Attribute In Drugbank

Question

[9606]

I'm looking at DrugBank; in some entries about drugs they also report a "Salts" attribute that I cannot understand.

For example: here , the Demeclocycline, has the following Salts:

• Demeclocycline HCL
• Demeclocycline hydrochloride
• Demethylchlortetracycline hydrochloride

Could you please explain me their meaning?

Answer 1

[Devon Ryan]

If you got a prescription for this, it would be for Demeclocycline HCl. The reasons for this are chemistry related.

Answer 2

[cdsouthan]

Many drugs are formulated as salts of various types (e.g. atorvastatin calcium). The official international generic (INN) names get confusing as they may refer to salt or parent or may even change with the national generic name. In this case all three are synonyms as the Japanese official name (JAN) is Demethylchlortetracycline. Note the DrugBank molecular structure entry is for parent not salt, that in this case is represented as http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/summary/summary.cgi?cid=54686764. There is some background here http://www.slideshare.net/cdsouthan/southan-bio-it2012drugnames (see slides 13 and 14)