What are prescription drugs? A prescription drug is a licensed medication that is subject to regulations listed in the correspondent legislation. A prescription drug is called so because it obligatorily requires a prescription to purchase it.

The term “prescription drugs” was invented in order to distinguish them from the other type of drugs called “over-the-counter drugs”  which can be obtained without a prescription.

There exist different definitions of what drugs may be considered prescription drugs.

In USA, there is also another term for “prescription drugs” – “Rx”, which is a short form for “prescription drug”. This is an abbreviation for Latin word “recipe”, which makes an imperative form for “recipere”, meaning “take this”.

Prescription drugs are never dispensed without detailed information about the drug, which may be listed in a special monograph.