How to read the result

Every brand name and active ingredient gets a score from 0 to 100 (100 means the same name). The score is the average of the parts shown under it. The orthographic parts compare the spelling: edit distance counts the letters to change to turn one name into the other; Jaro-Winkler counts the letters the names share in the same order, with a small bonus for a shared start. The phonetic part compares the sound: both names are turned into English Metaphone sound codes, and the codes are compared. A score measures how alike two names look and sound; it is not the chance that people will confuse them.
Names at or above the cut-off of 57 are marked. The cut-off comes from our own testing on Saudi data with ISMP's List of Confused Drug Names (for comparison, the FDA's POCA tool defaults to 55 and Swissmedic's TICI to 70, each on its own scoring scale). Status of the cut-off: rule confirmed by the user on 2026-10-02 (names-per-check budget 20).
The 20 closest names are always shown, even below the cut-off, so a short list never means "nothing similar".
Names can carry tags: High overall score (at or above the cut-off), High spelling score (the average of the orthographic parts is 70 or more) and High sound score (the phonetic part is 70 or more), both compared before rounding, so parts shown as 53 and 87 can average 69.9 and earn no tag. The spelling and sound tags come with the v1 scorer only; with it, when a name has no sound code (for example a name made only of digits), its phonetic part reads no sound code and counts as 0. Tags are labels only: they never change the score, the order or which names are listed, and a name with no tag is still one of the closest names.
Under each name, its name features compare two names: yours, cleaned like a trade name, and the name it matched (the brand name when it matched a full trade name, so a strength or pack size is left out wherever the brand name could be told apart from it; the two names compared are always shown). They give the shared beginning and the shared ending (3 letters or more) and the number of letters in each name. Only Latin letters are compared this way: a name with other letters (for example Arabic script) or with no letters gets no name features. Where the two names, lined up letter by letter, share 2 or more letters in a row, those letters are highlighted; a single shared letter on its own is not marked, so letters without highlight are not all differences.
Every name carries a label: registered, under study, removed from under-study list (it left SFDA's under-study list in the last 90 days; SFDA does not publish the outcome, so each such product carries a note) or no longer listed (it left the registered list).
Under-study products are checked by trade name only: SFDA's under-study list has no active ingredients. Each name shows its registered products and its products under study in two groups, each with its own count.
An active ingredient is compared on its own, also when a product combines it with others. Such a name is tagged in a combination, and each product with more than one active ingredient is tagged combination: point at the tag, or move to it with the Tab key, to see all of the product's active ingredients.
The optional dosage form adds a same form tag to names with a product of the same dosage form or the same broad group (for example two kinds of oral tablet). It never changes the score or the order.
The result lists candidates for a person to judge. A name is screened, not cleared, whatever its scores.
Names and dosage forms you type are sent only to this server, checked in memory and not stored or logged.