Title: drug safety
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - drug safety
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.12649
Status: current

Definition
Assessment of the nontolerable biological effects of a drug.

Note
Because the nontolerable effects of a drug are directly related to its concentration or dose, safety is generally ranked relative to the dose required to obtain the desirable effect.

Related Term
- therapeutic index: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/12735

Source
- PAC, 2013, 85, 1725. 'Glossary of terms used in medicinal chemistry. Part II (IUPAC Recommendations 2013)' on page 1733 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-12-11-23)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12649/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12649/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12649/xml

Citation: Citation: 'drug safety' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.12649
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-08-03T14:15:51+00:00