Issued by: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Issue Date: March 21, 2019

Program Area: Distributed Data Collection (DDC) for RA Including HCRP/EDGE Server

Question: What is the source of National Drug Codes (NDC) in the EDGE global reference data?

Answer: CMS uses the RxNorm (Prescription subset with the RXNSAT file) and the Orange Book for monthly updates to the Global Reference Data. The RxNorm includes all active NDCs with the exception of medical supplies and non-FDA OTC medications. The start and end dates are aligned with the approval dates and the inability to prescribe dates in the Orange Book, respectively . CMS crosswalks the NDC in the RxNorm to the Orange Book using the drug application numbers in the NDC Structured Product Label (SPL).

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