Drugs.com
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Pharmaceutical information |
| Founded | September 2001 |
| Founder | Bonnie Neubeck (domain registration), Eric MacIver (early ownership) |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | United States |
| Owner | Drugsite Trust |
| Website | drugs |
Drugs.com serves as a digital pharmaceutical reference, delivering drug-related information targeted at both consumers and healthcare professionals, mainly within the United States. The site prioritizes providing content that is "accurate and independent," designed exclusively for educational use without offering medical guidance.
Website
Drugs.com is owned by the Drugsite Trust, a private trust overseen by New Zealand pharmacists Karen Ann and Phillip James Thornton. The website operates on the IBM Cloud infrastructure. It features details on roughly 24,000 medications and attracted an audience of 50 million monthly visitors in 2021, with an average page load speed of one second.
The platform compiles information from prominent industry contributors such as Cerner Multum, Micromedex, Truven Health Analytics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AHFS, Harvard Health Publications, Mayo Clinic, and Animalytics for veterinary drug data.
Holding certifications from TRUSTe and the Health On the Net Foundation (HONcode), Drugs.com provides an extensive drug reference library including consumer-focused drug details, disease-specific drug portals, professional monographs, a database of natural products, and a poison control resource. The organization operates independently from pharmaceutical manufacturers.
History
The Drugs.com domain was initially registered by Bonnie Neubeck in 1994. In 1999, Eric MacIver secured an option to purchase the domain and subsequently sold it at auction for $823,666 to Venture Frogs, a startup incubator led by Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin—figures known for their involvement with LinkExchange and later Zappos.com. Venture Frogs transferred ownership of the domain to a private investor in June 2001, allowing Hsieh and Lin to concentrate on developing Zappos.com.
The official launch of the Drugs.com website occurred in September 2001. In March 2008, the company introduced Mednotes, a web-based personal medication record tool integrated with Google Health (which was discontinued in 2012).
In May 2010, Drugs.com collaborated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to distribute consumer health updates through its website and mobile applications.
By February 2016, comScore ranked Drugs.com as the sixth most visited health network in the U.S., drawing about 23 million monthly users. Additionally, Searchmetrics recognized it as one of the top 100 websites in the United States based on search visibility.
In April 2017, The Harris Poll awarded Drugs.com the title of Health Information Website Brand of the Year.