In an effort to curb the growing number of hazardous drug mixups, the health ministry plans to compile an online database in which medicines will be classified according to their names and packaging, ministry sources said Wednesday.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry thus hopes to bolster its monitoring of medicines on the market and its supervision of drug companies, with the focus on changes in product names or designs.
The sources said the database will debut on the Internet in fiscal 2004.