Back to: How to Read an Insert Training Course

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Looking for the ingredients in a medical product? This is your section! In addition to the ingredient list, the Description section will list the brand/generic name, dosage form, route of administration, and chemistry characteristics of the medicine.

Additionally, the chemical and structural formula might be shown like this example from the Lupron manufacturer insert:

Some inserts might have this section at the beginning of the insert in place of the Highlights of Prescribing Information. Other inserts will provide the description of a medication in Section 11. For example, here is the description of Botox injections:

The last paragraph of the above segment lists the ingredients of each Botox vial.

If you have any kind of allergies, be sure to read this section! Many medications also include artificial dyes. In addition to the Description section, the CDC has created a summary table for quick reference of vaccine excipients (substance formulated alongside the active ingredient of a medication).

The CDC recommends another resource from the Institute for Vaccine Safety that lists excipients in vaccines per 0.5 ml dose. This is extremely helpful if you have moral or religious objections to certain ingredients used in the testing or manufacturing of medical products.

In the next section, we’ll look at the science and clinical use of medical products.