RxDecoder My Rx
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How to use RxDecoder

Three minutes to read. The last section is the part that matters most.

Why this exists

Most people taking a prescription have questions about it, and most of the answers within reach are written by the companies selling the drug. The public record says a great deal more: what the FDA has warned about, what the trials found, who got paid to promote it, and what the courts have heard. It is scattered across a dozen databases that no patient has time to read. This site reads them and puts the result on one page per drug.

It is an encyclopedia rather than a service on purpose. A person's medication list is among the most private things they own. It says what they are being treated for and what they worry about, and it is nobody else's business, not a website's, and not even someone's who wants to help. So nothing here asks for your list. Every commonly prescribed drug is already graded, the same way, from the same records, and you look up your own. That one constraint shaped how the whole site works, and it is why the privacy here is not a promise but a design.

How to use it

1. Search a drug or a brand

Type what is printed on the bottle. Brand names work, misspellings work, and if the top match is a guess the page says "Did you mean." Each result shows the overall grade and five small chips for the parts of the score.

2. Read the page from the top down

The grade comes first, then every deduction that produced it, in plain words, so you can see exactly why, and judge for yourself whether each one applies to you. Below that are the records themselves: what the FDA label says, the side-effect reports and how they compare with the average drug, recalls, the trial and review evidence, what drug companies paid doctors to promote it, lawsuits and settlements, who takes it and what it costs, and same-class alternatives with their own grades so you can see if a better-graded option exists.

3. Take the questions to your appointment

Every page ends with questions written for your prescriber, built from that drug's record. They are not accusations. They are the questions a well-informed patient would ask, and a good prescriber will have answers.

4. Keep your own list with My Rx

Tap + Add to My Rx on any drug. Your list page shows your drugs worst grade first, lets you keep dated notes on each one, such as a side effect you noticed or when you were told to expect results, and gathers every drug's questions into one printable sheet for your next visit.

Why nobody can see your list, including me

This is the part I want to be precise about, because "we respect your privacy" is what every site says. Here is what is actually true, and you can verify each piece yourself.

I am the person who built and runs this site, and I cannot see which drugs you look up or what you keep on your list. Not because I decided not to look, but because the site was built so that there is nothing to look at. That was the point from the first day.

What this is not

It is not medical advice, and the grade is not a verdict on whether a drug is right for you. A drug can grade D here and be exactly the right choice for a specific person, and a drug can grade A and be wrong for you. The grade answers one narrow question: how strong is the public evidence and safety record behind this drug, and how clean is its money trail and court record. Use it to ask better questions. Do not start or stop any medication without talking to a clinician.

How the grades are calculated, every source, and the full terms are on the About page.