The Data Lab

We Pull An Enormous Amount Of Public Drug Data.
This Is Where We Play With It.

HelloPharmacist runs on public data. Every week our pipelines ingest the openFDA NDC Directory, FDA drug labels and adverse-event reports, CMS Medicaid utilization and HCPCS files, NIH and NLM references like RxNorm and the Dietary Supplement Label Database, FDA shortage and recall feeds, and more. That's the raw material behind our drug pages, interaction checkers, and lookup tools.

The Data Lab isn't something you need in order to use the site. It's a side room. We love data, and this is where we put pieces of it on display: interactive, explorable, and occasionally surprising. Expect it to grow.

openFDA NDC DirectoryFDA drug labels (DailyMed SPL) FDA FAERSFDA shortages & recalls CMS Medicaid State Drug UtilizationCMS HCPCS NLM RxNormNIH DSLDMedlinePlus

Data aggregation and dashboard code by .

📅 Last updated October 2026 Each dashboard shows its data date. Informational only; not medical advice.

Pick a dashboard

Four so far. Choose where to start, and switch any time from up here.

Dashboard: CMS State Drug Utilization Data

Medicaid & The Anti-Obesity GLP-1s

Data pulled 2026-07-22 · covers 2021 through 2025, plus the partial 2026 file (Q1)

Semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide are each sold under separate brand names for obesity and for diabetes, so only NDC-level data can isolate the anti-obesity brands (Wegovy, Zepbound, Saxenda) from their diabetes siblings (Ozempic, Mounjaro, Victoza). CMS publishes Medicaid utilization by NDC, and this is what it shows, 2021 through 2025 (plus the first partial 2026 quarter).

Every dollar figure is gross (pre-rebate) reimbursement. Medicaid rebates on these drugs are large and confidential, so gross is a ceiling on real state cost, not an estimate of it.
2025 gross spending
$4.44B
↑ 153% vs 2024
2025 prescriptions
3.75M
↑ 165% vs 2024
Cumulative gross, 2021–2025
$7.01B
from $24.7M in 2021
Jurisdictions reporting in 2025
52
50 states + DC + Puerto Rico · California alone is 47% of gross
Brand Measure
State

The Quarterly Curve

Totals by brand and quarter (summed over jurisdiction rows; pick a state in the filter row to drill down). The two markers are the 2024 label expansions: uses that fall outside Medicaid's optional weight-loss exclusion. (The Q4 2025 Wegovy dip is mostly one state's coverage pause, and 2026 Q1 is a partial file; see the notes under the charts.)

View as table
QuarterWegovy rxWegovy grossZepbound rxZepbound grossSaxenda rxSaxenda grossLiraglutide 3 mg (generic) rxLiraglutide 3 mg (generic) gross
2021 Q1 - - - - 3,345 $4,077,258 - -
2021 Q2 0 $0 - - 4,095 $5,035,870 - -
2021 Q3 292 $365,747 - - 5,174 $6,356,841 - -
2021 Q4 2,018 $2,336,444 - - 5,525 $6,568,258 - -
2022 Q1 5,885 $7,623,188 - - 5,920 $6,880,746 - -
2022 Q2 9,229 $12,184,335 - - 11,606 $14,236,901 - -
2022 Q3 7,714 $10,494,183 - - 21,783 $26,928,322 - -
2022 Q4 7,348 $10,113,704 - - 28,528 $34,950,871 - -
2023 Q1 58,533 $77,107,077 - - 33,764 $41,538,941 - -
2023 Q2 125,826 $164,609,518 - - 30,432 $36,909,072 - -
2023 Q3 121,999 $161,835,667 - - 30,770 $36,152,910 - -
2023 Q4 101,191 $133,300,075 429 $417,217 11,829 $14,198,888 - -
2024 Q1 121,248 $157,454,653 22,415 $22,971,584 5,667 $6,634,731 - -
2024 Q2 207,454 $268,508,349 43,384 $44,353,664 8,145 $9,664,957 - -
2024 Q3 376,857 $489,258,007 77,764 $79,854,977 10,021 $12,063,050 - -
2024 Q4 397,258 $513,971,661 134,592 $137,054,726 9,939 $11,852,643 - -
2025 Q1 441,885 $574,195,537 241,065 $250,748,478 9,077 $10,773,778 - -
2025 Q2 471,038 $613,598,485 340,696 $355,901,693 7,656 $9,082,919 - -
2025 Q3 593,864 $777,091,413 531,415 $558,690,284 7,186 $8,567,263 469 $457,846
2025 Q4 487,096 $633,526,067 608,430 $640,228,737 4,888 $5,794,396 1,222 $1,154,269
2026 Q1 236,826 $306,304,585 365,721 $383,953,303 2,808 $3,274,961 1,139 $1,036,002

The 2025 Map: Where The Dollars Went

Each tile is a jurisdiction, shaded by 2025 totals (log-decade bins; the spread runs from thousands to billions). Hover or focus a tile for details.

View as table (all 52 jurisdictions)
#Jurisdiction2025 prescriptions2025 grossLargest brand
1CA 1,712,999 $2,070,189,885 Wegovy
2PA 456,306 $553,540,978 Wegovy
3MI 359,264 $422,922,581 Wegovy
4NC 228,314 $301,977,547 Wegovy
5MA 217,409 $227,531,574 Zepbound
6WI 177,292 $206,338,859 Zepbound
7MN 124,839 $154,245,439 Wegovy
8MO 125,872 $133,072,984 Zepbound
9VA 45,599 $54,288,304 Wegovy
10TN 40,762 $49,908,199 Wegovy
11MS 32,253 $42,513,687 Wegovy
12KS 33,148 $36,164,463 Zepbound
13NH 19,738 $23,103,899 Wegovy
14PR 20,255 $22,766,974 Zepbound
15RI 12,749 $15,166,208 Wegovy
16CO 14,249 $14,950,406 Wegovy
17SC 11,352 $14,077,600 Wegovy
18OH 10,848 $13,478,537 Wegovy
19NJ 10,214 $11,982,030 Zepbound
20IN 8,749 $10,060,111 Zepbound
21IA 6,083 $6,713,910 Zepbound
22CT 5,475 $6,636,744 Zepbound
23TX 4,986 $6,400,572 Wegovy
24OR 4,607 $5,138,703 Zepbound
25WA 3,462 $3,980,554 Zepbound
26IL 3,046 $3,485,913 Zepbound
27MD 3,049 $3,438,593 Zepbound
28KY 3,257 $3,329,239 Zepbound
29LA 2,184 $2,813,820 Wegovy
30ID 2,293 $2,583,910 Zepbound
31ME 1,760 $2,097,408 Wegovy
32GA 1,530 $2,080,658 Wegovy
33AL 1,471 $1,707,604 Zepbound
34NV 1,240 $1,497,915 Wegovy
35FL 1,166 $1,447,153 Wegovy
36AK 1,305 $1,378,946 Zepbound
37VT 1,200 $1,210,888 Zepbound
38AZ 865 $1,117,409 Wegovy
39OK 622 $872,568 Wegovy
40DE 31,647 $729,035 Wegovy
41NE 471 $526,528 Zepbound
42DC 538 $436,250 Zepbound
43HI 244 $364,647 Wegovy
44WV 307 $344,929 Zepbound
45NY 208 $302,969 Wegovy
46AR 185 $242,960 Wegovy
47MT 189 $239,077 Wegovy
48UT 127 $148,845 Zepbound
49WY 139 $144,167 Zepbound
50NM 120 $118,983 Wegovy
51ND 0 $0 Wegovy
52SD 0 $0 Wegovy

How Many Jurisdictions Report Any Use

Anti-obesity coverage is optional for state Medicaid programs, yet the number of jurisdictions with any reported utilization climbed steeply around the 2024 cardiovascular (Wegovy) and sleep-apnea (Zepbound) indications.

View as table
QuarterWegovyZepboundSaxendaLiraglutide 3 mg (generic)
2021 Q1 - - 11 -
2021 Q2 - - 13 -
2021 Q3 5 - 15 -
2021 Q4 7 - 15 -
2022 Q1 12 - 15 -
2022 Q2 13 - 16 -
2022 Q3 12 - 16 -
2022 Q4 13 - 17 -
2023 Q1 16 - 17 -
2023 Q2 17 - 17 -
2023 Q3 17 - 17 -
2023 Q4 17 8 14 -
2024 Q1 18 13 15 -
2024 Q2 27 15 16 -
2024 Q3 34 18 16 -
2024 Q4 41 20 16 -
2025 Q1 45 30 15 -
2025 Q2 47 38 15 -
2025 Q3 45 42 15 6
2025 Q4 47 44 9 12
2026 Q1 49 45 7 14

When States Turn Coverage On And Off

Anti-obesity drugs are an optional Medicaid benefit, and late 2025 into 2026 brought a wave of reversals. These verified policy changes explain much of the state-level movement in the charts above (pick the state in the filter row to see it). Coverage for the cardiovascular (Wegovy) and sleep-apnea (Zepbound) indications generally continued, which is why utilization rarely falls all the way to zero.

  • North Carolina: covered obesity GLP-1s from Aug 1, 2024; paused Oct 1, 2025 during the budget stalemate, then reinstated Dec 12, 2025. The pause and rebound are unmistakable in NC's quarterly curve.
  • South Carolina: became the 14th state to cover on Nov 1, 2024 (Wegovy preferred), then removed obesity coverage from its preferred drug list effective Jan 1, 2026 (P&T committee minutes, Nov 5, 2025); diabetes GLP-1s and Wegovy's cardiovascular/MASH uses continue.
  • California: Medi-Cal, the class's largest spender, eliminated weight-loss GLP-1 coverage effective Jan 1, 2026 under the 2025-26 state budget (Medi-Cal Rx alert, Oct 21, 2025); Wegovy stays available by prior authorization for cardiovascular disease and MASH, Zepbound for sleep apnea, and under-21 coverage continues.
  • Pennsylvania: covered since Jan 2023; ended adult (21+) weight-loss coverage effective Jan 1, 2026 (DHS bulletin, Nov 24, 2025; projected savings of $348M in FY 2025-26); under-21 access continues through EPSDT.
  • New Hampshire: ended weight-loss-only coverage effective Jan 1, 2026 (DHHS notice, Oct 9, 2025); diabetes, cardiovascular, sleep-apnea, and MASH uses continue.
  • Michigan: covering obesity drugs since Feb 1, 2022; from Jan 1, 2026 restricted to patients with morbid obesity who failed other interventions, as an alternative to bariatric surgery (MDHHS letter L 25-73).
  • Coming later in 2026: Massachusetts ends weight-loss coverage Jul 3, 2026 (MassHealth Pharmacy Facts 271; cardiovascular, MASH, and sleep-apnea uses keep coverage), and Rhode Island restricts to type 2 diabetes only from Oct 1, 2026 under its FY2027 budget.

Also worth knowing: Connecticut has required a type 2 diabetes diagnosis on GLP-1 claims since Jan 15, 2025 and implemented its obesity-drug mandate with non-GLP-1 medications, and West Virginia's much-reported 2024 pilot pause was the state employee plan, not Medicaid. Verified against state Medicaid bulletins, preferred drug lists, and committee minutes, with KFF for the national count (16 covering states in Oct 2025, 13 as of Jan 2026).

Down To The Raw Grain: Utilization By NDC

Every package NDC in the cohort: total prescriptions and gross reimbursement for the whole window (2021 through the partial 2026 file), with a per-state breakdown on click. Non-suppressed rows only; national XX rows excluded. Sort by any column. NDCs tagged delisted no longer appear in the current openFDA NDC Directory; their utilization was recovered from SDUD claims history (manufacturers retire package codes over time).

NDC Brand Package Prescriptions Gross 2025 gross States

Reading the endpoints: the Q4 2025 Wegovy decline is concentrated in North Carolina, whose Medicaid program paused GLP-1 weight-management coverage on Oct 1, 2025 during a budget stalemate and reinstated it Dec 12, 2025. NC Wegovy prescriptions fell from 80,399 (Q3) to 5,578 (Q4) while coverage under the cardiovascular indication continued; 34 jurisdictions still grew that quarter, and Zepbound grew nationally. CMS's most recent quarters also typically revise upward in later releases, and the 2026 file is partial (Q1 only), so endpoint dips are part reporting artifact.

Source: CMS Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (public domain), extracted by NDC and pulled 2026-07-22; brand→NDC resolution via the openFDA NDC Directory. Suppressed small cells are counted, never imputed; states restate prior quarters, so figures shift slightly between releases. The full panel, methodology, and audit are published as an open dataset (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21494203, CC BY 4.0); a companion paper is in preparation. See also our open-data page.

Dashboard: openFDA + DailyMed Labels

Built from the openFDA NDC Directory export dated July 18, 2026

What's Inside The Pill: Inactive Ingredients At Scale

We parsed the FDA labeling of 51,065 oral drug products and pulled out every declared inactive ingredient (474,126 declarations) to answer questions patients actually ask: how often is lactose in a tablet? If you avoid gelatin or a dye, is there an alternative version of your medicine? This census is published as an open dataset (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21482069).

Prevalence means the label declares the ingredient; the absence of a declaration is not proof of absence.
Oral products in the census
51,065
distinct product NDC listings
Ingredient declarations
474,126
structured, UNII-keyed rows
Analyzed for prevalence
50,005
exact label match + ≥1 declaration
Declare a synthetic dye
39.96%
19,980 products; up to 8 distinct dyes in one product

How Common Is Each Avoidance-Relevant Excipient?

Share of the 50,005 analyzed oral products declaring each ingredient group. Click a bar (or a chip below) to break it down by product type and dose form.

View as table
Ingredient groupPanelProductsPrevalence95% CI
Synthetic color additivesPrimary 19,98039.96%39.53-40.39
LactosePrimary 19,67439.34%38.92-39.77
Propylene glycolSecondary 9,98019.96%19.61-20.31
GelatinPrimary 9,25018.5%18.16-18.84
SucroseSecondary 3,9447.89%7.65-8.13
SorbitolSecondary 3,7447.49%7.26-7.72
Soy-derivedPrimary 1,4162.83%2.69-2.98
Aspartame (phenylalanine source)Secondary 8021.6%1.50-1.72
Benzyl alcoholSecondary 3000.6%0.54-0.67
Peanut oilPrimary 720.14%0.11-0.18
Sesame oilPrimary 150.03%0.02-0.05
Wheat (explicitly declared)Primary 60.01%0.01-0.03

Wheat (explicitly declared): Counts only ingredients declared as wheat-derived (wheat starch, wheat germ). U.S. oral drugs overwhelmingly use corn or potato starch, so explicit wheat is rare. This figure does NOT include maltodextrin or source-unspecified starches (e.g. sodium starch glycolate), which are usually corn/potato but can rarely be wheat-derived; celiac patients should still confirm the source with the manufacturer.

Where Does It Hide?

Prevalence of the selected ingredient by product type and physical form. The hairline marks its overall prevalence.

View as table (all groups × strata)
Ingredient groupOverallRxOTCGenericBrandSolidLiquidPowder
Synthetic color additives39.96% 34.82% 57.48% 35.91% 32.74% 38.87% 53.82% 31.78%
Lactose39.34% 46.42% 15.23% 45.93% 36.15% 43.62% 0.05% 6.44%
Propylene glycol19.96% 17.59% 28.04% 18.3% 12.71% 17.18% 54.63% 1.9%
Gelatin18.5% 19.63% 14.64% 19.18% 20.51% 20.57% 0% 0.11%
Sucrose7.89% 7% 10.92% 6.99% 8.03% 5.89% 20.59% 47.94%
Sorbitol7.49% 2.26% 25.33% 2.98% 6.62% 3.46% 51.45% 8.76%
Soy-derived2.83% 2.74% 3.15% 2.73% 2.07% 3.06% 0.32% 3.06%
Aspartame (phenylalanine source)1.6% 1.39% 2.35% 1.64% 1.37% 1.4% 0.49% 16.26%
Benzyl alcohol0.6% 0.31% 1.61% 0.27% 0.96% 0.23% 4.54% 0.95%
Peanut oil0.14% 0.19% 0% 0.18% 0.06% 0.16% 0% 0%
Sesame oil0.03% 0.04% 0% 0.01% 0.22% 0.03% 0.02% 0%
Wheat (explicitly declared)0.01% 0% 0.05% 0% 0% 0.01% 0% 0.21%

When There's No Way Around It

Among prescription drugs (same generic name, ≥2 marketed versions) with at least one version declaring the ingredient: the share where every version declares it, so switching products at the pharmacy can't avoid it.

View as table (with example drugs)
Ingredient groupAffected namesNo free optionLocked-inExamples (all versions declare it)
Peanut oil 2 1 50% Progesterone
Lactose 657 306 46.58% Buspirone Hydrochloride, Rosuvastatin Calcium, Carvedilol
Gelatin 322 150 46.58% Benzonatate, Atomoxetine, Clindamycin Hydrochloride
Synthetic color additives 653 158 24.2% Hydralazine Hydrochloride, Clindamycin Hydrochloride, Hydroxyzine Pamoate
Sucrose 200 44 22% Erythromycin Ethylsuccinate, Dexlansoprazole, Dextroamphetamine Sulfate, Dextroamphetamine Saccharate, Amphetamine Sulfate And Amphetamine Aspartate
Propylene glycol 455 98 21.54% Pantoprazole, Mexiletine Hydrochloride, Methocarbamol Tablets
Benzyl alcohol 25 5 20% Atovaquone, Rimegepant Sulfate, Nortriptyline Hcl
Sorbitol 138 24 17.39% Lubiprostone, Bexarotene, Midazolam Hydrochloride
Soy-derived 94 15 15.96% Isotretinoin, Progesterone, Ergocalciferol
Aspartame (phenylalanine source) 41 4 9.76% Cholestyramine Light, Aripiprazole Orally Disintegrating, Rizatriptan Benzoate Odt
Sesame oil 1 0 0% -

The Dye Count Distribution

Number of distinct synthetic color additives declared per product. 39.96% declare at least one, and a handful declare seven or eight.

View as table
Distinct dyes declaredProducts
030,025
19,683
26,381
32,464
4917
5325
6164
740
86

Source: our published census of declared inactive ingredients (openFDA NDC Directory export 2026-07-18 + DailyMed Structured Product Labeling; CC BY 4.0, 10.5281/zenodo.21482069). Declared prevalence is a lower bound; quantities are not declared, and declared presence is not a reaction-risk estimate. Talk to your pharmacist about your specific product.

📈 Overall Medicaid Utilization

The whole program in one place: every drug Medicaid filled, aggregated from the CMS State Drug Utilization files by generic — including drugs we don’t have pages for. Prescriptions are actual fills; dollar figures are gross reimbursement before confidential rebates, so treat them as list-price scale, not net program cost. Totals cover Q2 2025 – Q1 2026; the quarterly series runs through Q1 2026.

692,324,375
Prescriptions (Q2 2025 – Q1 2026)
$106B
Gross reimbursement (pre-rebate)
2,232
Distinct drugs (by generic)
27,946
NDCs with activity

The League Table

Every drug Medicaid fills, ranked. Toggle the metric — prescription count tells you what people take; gross dollars tells you where the money goes; per-fill shows list-price intensity. The list carries the leaders by each metric, so low-prescription, high-dollar biologics (Stelara, Humira…) surface under Gross $ and $/fill instead of being buried by volume drugs. Drugs we cover link to their pages.

View as table (top 50)
#DrugRx (Q2 2025 – Q1 2026)Gross $$ / fill
1 Albuterol 19,527,955 $719.2M $36.83
2 Ibuprofen 13,722,881 $147.8M $10.77
3 Cetirizine 12,076,956 $119.3M $9.88
4 Gabapentin 11,826,768 $165.1M $13.96
5 Atorvastatin 11,527,356 $123.8M $10.74
6 Amoxicillin 11,451,458 $122.3M $10.68
7 Fluticasone 11,068,970 $497.3M $44.93
8 Ondansetron 10,434,579 $163.8M $15.69
9 Hydroxyzine 9,012,994 $106.5M $11.82
10 Sertraline 8,868,838 $108.4M $12.22
11 Omeprazole 8,608,252 $95.6M $11.11
12 Amphetamine / Amphetamine Aspartate / Dextroamphetamine / Dextroamphetamine Saccharate 8,366,735 $354.5M $42.37
13 Amlodipine 8,001,895 $80.7M $10.08
14 Metformin 7,908,098 $132.7M $16.78
15 Ergocalciferol 7,906,448 $64.3M $8.14
16 Trazodone 7,898,849 $82.1M $10.40
17 Levothyroxine 7,786,116 $126.6M $16.26
18 Acetaminophen 7,052,165 $76.2M $10.81
19 Buprenorphine / Naloxone 6,982,257 $1.2B $168.12
20 Lisinopril 6,788,275 $71M $10.46
21 Famotidine 6,721,135 $90.2M $13.42
22 Bupropion 6,669,676 $129.8M $19.47
23 Fluoxetine 6,470,846 $73.1M $11.29
24 Escitalopram 6,377,287 $71.1M $11.14
25 Aspirin 6,339,093 $49.9M $7.87
26 Losartan 5,992,793 $60M $10.01
27 Metoprolol 5,974,347 $63.9M $10.70
28 Clonidine 5,841,679 $81.7M $13.98
29 Pantoprazole 5,788,832 $65.8M $11.36
30 Quetiapine 5,742,999 $73.9M $12.87
31 Triamcinolone 5,707,065 $77.9M $13.64
32 Semaglutide 5,616,018 $6.3B $1,116.65
33 Methylphenidate 5,584,683 $784.1M $140.40
34 Amoxicillin / Clavulanate 5,453,053 $82.1M $15.06
35 Prednisone 5,403,702 $40.8M $7.55
36 Montelukast 5,399,642 $55.2M $10.23
37 Azithromycin 5,254,152 $58.3M $11.10
38 Loratadine 5,204,681 $44.6M $8.56
39 Buspirone 5,180,004 $64.1M $12.38
40 Aripiprazole 4,917,152 $1.1B $218.97
41 Diclofenac 4,613,847 $112.5M $24.39
42 Acetaminophen / Hydrocodone 4,549,976 $66.2M $14.54
43 Cyclobenzaprine 4,437,147 $36.3M $8.19
44 Lamotrigine 4,404,274 $123.8M $28.10
45 Duloxetine 4,105,090 $63.1M $15.37
46 Methadone 4,056,822 $25.6M $6.32
47 Guanfacine 4,036,456 $65.8M $16.30
48 Lisdexamfetamine 3,941,773 $1.2B $311.15
49 Cephalexin 3,933,821 $53.1M $13.50
50 Rosuvastatin 3,856,137 $44.8M $11.61

State by State

Where the fills happen. Scope to one drug (top 57 available) to see its own geography.

The Quarterly Pulse

National prescriptions per quarter across the whole catalog — pick a drug to overlay its own curve.

Inside a Drug: Product-Level Splits

Our RxNorm pipeline splits a drug’s Medicaid fills across its exact clinical products — each strength & dosage form, brand and generic combined. Pick a drug:

Big in Medicaid, Not on HelloPharmacist (Yet)

The highest-volume drugs we don’t have pages for — in public view because it honestly maps our coverage, and because it’s our to-do list.

  1. Acetaminophen / Hydrocodone — 4,549,976 Rx
  2. Docusate — 2,709,192 Rx
  3. Acetaminophen / Oxycodone — 2,140,047 Rx
  4. Brompheniramine / Dextromethorphan / Pseudoephedrine — 1,490,229 Rx
  5. Ethinyl Estradiol / Norgestimate — 1,423,058 Rx
  6. Nicotine Polacrilex — 730,294 Rx
  7. Paliperidone Palmitate — 691,208 Rx
  8. Ethinyl Estradiol / Norethindrone — 649,697 Rx
  9. Atorvastatin / Film Coated — 594,918 Rx
  10. Betamethasone / Clotrimazole — 554,662 Rx
  11. Docusate Sodium Mg / Sennosides Mg — 512,327 Rx
  12. Isosorbide Mononitrate — 496,404 Rx
  13. Tiotropium Bromide Inhalation — 436,769 Rx
  14. Potassium Chloride Extended-release — 364,175 Rx
  15. Insulin Glargine-yfgn — 361,566 Rx
  16. Hydrocortisone / Neomycin / Polymyxin B — 343,548 Rx
  17. Glycopyrrolate — 340,723 Rx
  18. Olmesartan Medoxomil — 340,022 Rx
  19. Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide Oral Solution / Promethazine — 295,276 Rx
  20. Umeclidinium / Vilanterol Trifenatate — 275,927 Rx
  21. Clindamycin Phosphate Gel Usp — 273,189 Rx
  22. Electrolytes / Polyethylene Glycol- — 269,460 Rx
  23. Hydrochlorothiazide Tablets / Lisinopril — 252,207 Rx
  24. Lidocaine / Prilocaine — 249,236 Rx
  25. Drospirenone — 243,138 Rx

Source: CMS Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data, aggregated by FDA generic name across all states, fee-for-service and managed care; small cells are suppressed by CMS before release. Dollars are gross reimbursement before statutory rebates (often large, especially for brands) — net program cost is lower. Dataset refreshes weekly · built 2026-10-01 17:23:41.

Dashboard: NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database

Built from the DSLD snapshot of October 4, 2026

Vitamin B6 On Supplement Labels: How Much Do The Directions Allow?

Too much vitamin B6, taken for months, can damage nerves (sensory peripheral neuropathy). We read every vitamin B6 label in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database that is flagged as on the market (16,943 labels, merged into 11,908 products) and worked out the most vitamin B6 each label's own directions allow per day. Then we compared it with the US upper limit (100 mg a day for adults, set in 1998) and with the much lower limits Europe, the Netherlands and Australia now use. Every product at or above a US limit was checked by hand against its label record. The full census is published as an open dataset (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23140927).

The upper limit is a population safety benchmark, not the point where harm begins: a label dose above it is not an overdose. Ask your pharmacist about your own products before changing anything.
Adult products at or above the US limit
571
5.0% of 11,362; 100 mg a day or more
Over the limit from the product alone
163
more than 100 mg a day; 7 allow 500 mg or more
Above Europe's 12 mg limit
38.7%
4,395 adult products
Child or teen doses above the limit
22
products; up to 250 mg a day for ages 4 and up (limit 40 mg)

Where Every Product Lands

The most vitamin B6 a day each of the 11,362 adult products' directions allow, on a log scale (median 10 mg, maximum 600 mg). Top: how many products sit at each dose; the blue bars are at or above the US limit. Bottom: the share of products above each dose, with each country's line marked.

Chart of the maximum daily vitamin B6 dose allowed by the label directions of 11,362 adult supplement products, from under 0.1 mg to 600 mg on a log scale, with lines at 12, 21, 50, 100 and 200 mg. 38.7% of products are above 12 mg, 5.0% are at or above 100 mg and 1.4% are above 100 mg.

Swipe sideways to see the whole chart. Every number is also in the table below, or open the full-size figure.

View as table
Daily dose the directions allowWhose lineAdult productsShare95% CI
Above 10 mg a dayUnited Kingdom: NHS advice ceiling for supplements 4,62040.7% 39.8 to 41.6%
Above 12 mg a dayEuropean Union: EFSA tolerable upper intake level (2023) 4,39538.7% 37.8 to 39.6%
Above 21 mg a dayNetherlands: legal maximum in supplements (2018) 3,27328.8% 28.0 to 29.6%
Above 50 mg a dayAustralia: pharmacist-only above this from June 2027 1,0309.1% 8.6 to 9.6%
At or above 100 mg a dayUnited States: tolerable upper intake level (1998) 5715.0% 4.6 to 5.4%
Above 100 mg a dayUnited States: over the limit from the product alone 1631.4% 1.2 to 1.7%
Above 200 mg a dayAustralia: prescription-only above this 410.4% 0.3 to 0.5%
At or above 500 mg a dayFive times the US limit 70.06% 0.03 to 0.13%

Where The High Doses Hide

319 of the 571 products at or above the US limit (55.9%) are not sold as vitamin B6 or B-complex products, so people can take these doses without knowing it. Categories come from product names and are approximate.

CategoryAdult productsAt or above 100 mgShare
B-complex597 13923.3%
Single-ingredient vitamin B6244 11346.3%
Multivitamin and mineral2,549 512.0%
Sleep, mood, stress, brain703 294.1%
Women's health234 135.6%
Energy, sports, weight1,357 120.9%
Heart, homocysteine195 73.6%
Hair, skin, nails270 72.6%
Immune132 32.3%
Prenatal327 10.3%
Magnesium (including ZMA)83 00.0%
Other (no named category)4,671 1964.2%

Doses Printed For Children And Teens

We read the directions on every label supplying 30 mg a day or more, the lowest children's limit. 22 products tell a stated child or teen age to take more than the US limit for that age, up to 250 mg a day for ages 4 and older (6.2 times the limit). 10 of them, from one manufacturer, say they are "formulated for adults and children four years and older" and give everyone the same dose of 50 to 250 mg a day. These are printed directions, not reports of harm.

AgeUS upper limit, mg a day
Ages 1 to 330
Ages 4 to 840
Ages 9 to 1360
Ages 14 to 1880
Adults100

Source: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, Dietary Supplement Label Database (on-market labels), public domain, pulled October 4, 2026. Daily dose = the vitamin B6 per serving times the largest serving and the most servings a day the label's directions allow; package-size and image twins are merged into one product. Every product at or above a US limit was verified against its label record (295 records read in full): 12 internally inconsistent records were excluded and 19 mis-encoded serving records were corrected to the printed directions. Labeled amounts, not measured content; a label census, not a sales census. The census, code and review log are published as an open dataset (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23140927, CC BY 4.0); a companion paper is in preparation. See also our open-data page.

More From The Lab