# Terms of Use of Public Databases and Terminologies in Drug Discovery: A Structured Survey

Technical report · Mdexa Research · 2026-11-13

Technical report, not peer reviewed.

Data version: page snapshots saved 2026-11-12; seed list of 26 resources

https://mdexa.com/research/03-drug-discovery-terms-survey/

> **Read first.** This report records the terms as written on each resource's own pages on the day the page text was saved (2026-11-12). It is not legal advice. Terms change; before relying on any of them, read the current official pages.

**Mdexa Research** · Technical report, not peer reviewed · 2026-11-13 · Data version: page snapshots saved 2026-11-12; a list of 26 resources

## Abstract

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology users of public drug-discovery databases and coding systems must locate usage terms that are spread over home pages, documentation pages and site-wide policies, and that take very different forms. For 26 widely used resources in seven categories, the pages expected to state terms were fetched and saved as text, and each stated permission and condition was recorded together with a verbatim quotation that a script confirms in the saved page. A first-hand page was captured for 19 resources; for 17 of them it contained terms text and for 2 only a link to terms. Among the 19, the forms observed were different terms for different parts (5), permissive licenses with conditions (4), public-domain or government-work statements (2), terms link only (2), and one each of commercial use allowed with limits on modification or purpose, commercial copying and distribution excluded together with modification, non-commercial use with authorization for other use, membership-dependent terms, terms of use with conditions, and a copyright reservation without a licence statement. For the other 7 resources no usable terms page could be captured, so they are listed as unverified and no second-hand claim is made. The survey records statements only, covers a single date, and reflects what the fetching method could read.

**Keywords:** data licensing; drug discovery; public databases; terminologies; terms of use; metadata

## 1. Scope and method

**Resources.** The 26 resources are those in the project's working list, grouped as: drugs, drug labels, targets and activities, protein structure, adverse events and interactions, clinical-trial registries, and terminology and coding. The list is a convenience selection of commonly used resources, not a census.

**Capture.** For each resource a script fetched the resource's home page and one page expected to state terms (a terms page, an about page or a site-wide policy), and saved the page text with a time and HTTP status. The script does not bypass access refusals or render scripts. Pages that refused access, returned no text, or returned only a browser message count as not captured.

**Reading.** Each stated permission is entered as written. The columns "commercial use", "adaptation" and "redistribution" take the values *yes* (the quoted text, or the standard license it names such as CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, grants it), *no* (the quoted text excludes it), *conditional* (it depends on a condition or authorization) and *not stated* (nothing on the captured pages). That a named Creative Commons license grants a permission is general knowledge of those licenses and is not itself a statement on the page. No column evaluates a resource; they restate the pages.

**Verification of quotations.** `scripts/survey.mjs` checks that every quotation occurs in the saved page text (after Unicode NFKC, case folding, quotation-mark and whitespace normalisation) and stops with an error otherwise. The table below is written by that script. The table does not rely on the verdicts of any dataset card.

## 2. Results

Of the 26 resources, 19 are in Table 1 and 7 in Table 3. Table 1 lists them by category. Quotations are short extracts; the snapshot ids refer to the saved page files, which Mdexa keeps and can provide on request.



| Category | Resource (publisher) | Form of terms | Commercial use | Adaptation | Redistribution | Conditions | Quoted text (snapshot) | Page saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drugs | DrugCentral (University of New Mexico (DrugCentral)) | terms link only, no license text captured | not stated | not stated | not stated | - | (the page shows only a link titled "License"; no licence text) | 2026-11-12 |
| Drug labels | openFDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) | different terms for different parts | yes | yes | yes | third-party parts excluded | "public domain and made available with a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal dedication" (s02)<br>"must first obtain an appropriate license from The GMDN Agency" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Drug labels | DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine) | different terms for different parts (site-wide policy) | yes | yes | yes | notice/acknowledgement; third-party parts excluded | "Works produced by the U.S. government are not subject to copyright protection in the United States." (s02)<br>"may be protected by U.S. and international copyright laws" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Targets and activities | ChEMBL (EMBL-EBI) | permissive license with conditions | yes | yes | yes | attribution; share-alike | "The ChEMBL data is made available on a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License." (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Targets and activities | BindingDB (University of California San Diego (BindingDB)) | different terms for different parts | yes | yes | yes | attribution; share-alike | "All data curated by BindingDB staff are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License" (s02)<br>"Data imported from ChEMBL are provided under their Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Targets and activities | Open Targets Platform (Open Targets) | public-domain dedication or government work | yes | yes | yes | - | "Open Targets Platform is marked with CC0 1.0" (s01)<br>"have agreed for their data to be used without restriction by all Open Targets users" (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Targets and activities | IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (IUPHAR/BPS and University of Edinburgh) | permissive license with conditions | yes | yes | yes | attribution; share-alike | "The Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database is licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL)" (s02)<br>"Its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Protein structure | RCSB Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB (wwPDB)) | different terms for different parts | yes | yes | yes | attribution | "data files contained in the PDB archive are available under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication" (s02)<br>"unless they originate from an integrated external resource" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Protein structure | AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (EMBL-EBI and Google DeepMind) | permissive license with conditions | yes | yes | yes | attribution | "Data is available for academic and commercial use, under a CC-BY-4.0 licence." (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Adverse events and interactions | SIDER (EMBL (Bork group)) | permissive license with conditions | yes | yes | yes | attribution; share-alike | "Except as otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Adverse events and interactions | DDInter (Central South University) | copyright reserved, no license statement | not stated | not stated | not stated | - | "All Rights Reserved" (s01)<br>"open-access database" (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Adverse events and interactions | FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) | public-domain dedication or government work (site-wide policy) | yes | yes | yes | - | "are not copyrighted. They are in the public domain and may be republished, reprinted and otherwise used freely by anyone without the need to obtain permission from FDA" (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Clinical-trial registries | WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (World Health Organization) | non-commercial use; other use needs authorization (site-wide policy) | no | not stated | conditional | prior written authorization; attribution | "reproduced or translated for research or private study but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes" (s01)<br>"any use other than for educational or other non-commercial purposes, require explicit, prior authorization in writing" (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Clinical-trial registries | AACT Database (Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative) | terms link only, no license text captured | not stated | not stated | not stated | - | (no licence text on the captured pages) | 2026-11-12 |
| Terminology and coding | RxNorm (U.S. National Library of Medicine) | different terms for different parts | conditional | conditional | conditional | source-specific restrictions; registration/licence application; notice/acknowledgement | "is in the public domain as it is created by the U.S. government" (s02)<br>"includes proprietary data from various terminology providers" (s02)<br>"A free UMLS license is required to download the full RxNorm releases" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Terminology and coding | MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) (U.S. National Library of Medicine) | terms of use with conditions | not stated | not stated | conditional | notice/acknowledgement; keep current or disclose | "acknowledge NLM as the source of the data" (s01)<br>"Users who republish or redistribute the data (services, products or raw data) agree to" (s01) | 2026-11-12 |
| Terminology and coding | SNOMED CT (SNOMED International) | by country or membership | conditional | not stated | not stated | territory/membership; registration/licence application | "SNOMED International does not charge for use of SNOMED CT in SNOMED International Member countries or territories." (s02)<br>"required to apply for a license through the Member Licensing & Distribution Service (MLDS) on an annual basis" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Terminology and coding | WHO ATC/DDD Index (WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology) | commercial copying and distribution excluded; modification excluded | no (commercial copying and distribution) | no | conditional | attribution | "Copying and distribution for commercial purposes is not allowed. Changing or manipulating the material is not allowed." (s02) | 2026-11-12 |
| Terminology and coding | LOINC (Regenstrief Institute) | commercial use allowed; modification or purpose limited | yes | conditional | yes | notice/acknowledgement; no modification of documents; no different identifier standard | "It is free for use in both commercial and non-commercial systems." (s02)<br>"may not be modified, nor may derivative works be created" (s02)<br>"for the purpose of developing or promulgating a different standard for identifying patient observations" (s02) | 2026-11-12 |



*Table 1. Terms as stated on the captured pages. "Page saved" is the date the page text was captured; the pages were not re-fetched later.*



| Form of terms | Resources |
|---|---|
| different terms for different parts | 5 |
| permissive license with conditions | 4 |
| public-domain dedication or government work | 2 |
| terms link only, no license text captured | 2 |
| copyright reserved, no license statement | 1 |
| non-commercial use; other use needs authorization | 1 |
| terms of use with conditions | 1 |
| by country or membership | 1 |
| commercial copying and distribution excluded; modification excluded | 1 |
| commercial use allowed; modification or purpose limited | 1 |



*Table 2. Forms of terms among the 19 resources of Table 1.*

## 3. Forms of terms, with examples

**Public domain or government work.** A government body states that its content is not subject to copyright or is public domain. The FDA website policy, which applies to the pages that describe the adverse-event reporting system, says its content "are not copyrighted. They are in the public domain and may be republished, reprinted and otherwise used freely by anyone without the need to obtain permission from FDA", and the policy begins "Unless otherwise noted". Whether that statement extends to a given dataset on the site is a separate question that the policy does not settle; the exception clause means a dataset page should be checked as well. Public-domain status under one country's law may differ elsewhere.

**Permissive license with conditions.** A standard open license that grants use with obligations. For ChEMBL, the captured page reads: "The ChEMBL data is made available on a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License." The obligations are attribution and sharing derived material under the same terms. The Guide to PHARMACOLOGY states two licenses, one for the database and one for its contents.

**Different terms for different parts.** The publisher gives different terms to different components. BindingDB states that "All data curated by BindingDB staff are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License" and that "Data imported from ChEMBL are provided under their Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License". openFDA states CC0 for its content, and separately that certain GMDN content, for uses such as alternative categorisation or AI training, requires a licence from the GMDN Agency. The NLM policy captured for DailyMed says that works produced by the U.S. government are not subject to copyright protection, and that content contributed by or licensed from private parties "may be protected by U.S. and international copyright laws". The RCSB PDB policy gives CC0 for archive data and CC-BY-4.0 for other site content, and says data from integrated external resources carry the provider's restrictions.

**Non-commercial use, other use by authorization.** The WHO website terms of use (a site-wide policy; the registry platform page sits on the same site) allow extracts to be "reproduced or translated for research or private study but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes" and require "explicit, prior authorization in writing" for any use other than educational or non-commercial. The pattern in which academic use is free and commercial use is licensed separately is not represented by any first-hand page captured in this survey; the WHO terms above are the closest form, and no such claim is made for the resources in Table 3.

**By country or membership.** SNOMED International states that it "does not charge for use of SNOMED CT in SNOMED International Member countries or territories." and that use in a non-member territory requires an application through its licensing service "on an annual basis"; fees may apply there.

**No modification, or limited purpose.** LOINC's license page states that it "is free for use in both commercial and non-commercial systems" and also that its documents "may not be modified, nor may derivative works be created" and that the materials may not be used "for the purpose of developing or promulgating a different standard for identifying patient observations".

**Commercial copying and distribution excluded.** The ATC/DDD index page states: "Copying and distribution for commercial purposes is not allowed. Changing or manipulating the material is not allowed." It also requires reference to the publishing centre when material is used. In Table 1 the commercial-use column reads "no (commercial copying and distribution)", the narrowest wording the quotation supports; the page does not address other commercial uses.

**Copyright reserved without a license statement.** The DDInter page footer reads "All Rights Reserved" and describes the resource as an "open-access database". The captured pages contain no license statement; the page about the resource returned HTTP 404.

**Terms link only.** The captured pages of DrugCentral and AACT show a link to terms (for DrugCentral, a link titled "License") but no license text; the linked terms page was not captured, so their terms are not stated here.

## 4. Resources that could not be verified

For these seven resources no usable terms page was captured. Search-result snippets and second-hand descriptions exist for some of them; they are deliberately not quoted here.



| Resource (publisher) | Reason | Fetch date |
|---|---|---|
| DrugBank (OMx Personal Health Analytics (DrugBank)) | all captured fetches returned HTTP 403 | 2026-11-12 |
| PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine (NCBI)) | the PubChem pages returned no text; only the NCBI-wide policy page was captured | 2026-11-12 |
| UniProt (UniProt Consortium) | the pages returned only a browser-fallback message | 2026-11-12 |
| PharmGKB / ClinPGx (Stanford University (ClinPGx)) | both pages returned no text | 2026-11-12 |
| ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine) | the pages returned a near-empty shell | 2026-11-12 |
| MedDRA (ICH / MSSO) | both pages returned no text | 2026-11-12 |
| ICD-11 (World Health Organization) | the licence is a PDF, which is not saved; the page text shows only a link title | 2026-11-12 |



*Table 3. Resources without a usable captured terms page. The fetch status and byte count of each captured page are in the capture index kept by Mdexa.*

## 5. Limitations

1. One capture date. All pages were saved on 2026-11-12 and are not re-checked; terms change, and several resources revise them regularly.
2. Two pages per resource. If a resource states terms on a page that was not fetched (a licence page linked from a footer, a data-release page, a README), this survey misses it. This is why two resources are listed as "link only" rather than as having no terms.
3. Site-wide policies versus dataset-specific terms. For three resources the quoted text comes from a site-wide policy of the publisher; whether it covers a specific dataset on that site was not checked beyond the quoted exception clauses.
4. The three permission columns apply the page's wording and the named standard license; they are a reading, not an adjudication, and they do not cover trademarks, patents, privacy or contractual terms that apply when downloading.
5. The resource list is not a census, and counts by form describe these 26 resources only.
6. Script-rendered pages and refused fetches are unreadable by the method; the 7 unverified resources reflect the method's limits, not a judgement about the resources.
7. No external legal review is recorded in the project files.

## 6. Reproducibility

The script `scripts/survey.mjs` accompanies the report. It re-checks every quotation against the saved page text, rewrites the tables in both language versions, and writes `figures/survey.json`, `unverified.json` and `counts.json`. The saved page text and the capture index (URL, time, HTTP status, byte count and SHA-256 of each captured page) are kept by Mdexa and are available on request; they are not part of the public database repository.

*Technical report, not peer reviewed. Mdexa Research, 2026-11-13. Terms as written on pages saved 2026-11-12. Not legal advice. Mdexa is operated by UNILINK AI PTE. LTD.*