A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
"Rx" is often used as a short form for prescription drug in North America. It is an abbreviation for the Latin "recipe", an imperative form of "recipere", meaning "take".
Prescription drugs are often dispensed together with a monograph (in Europe, a Patient Information Leaflet or PIL) that gives detailed information about the drug.
Read more about Prescription Drug: Regulation in United States, Regulation in United Kingdom, Regulation in Australia, Expiration Date, Environmental Problems
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