Library: Drug Discovery: Search the literature

Chemistry databases

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
SciFinder-n is the largest index to chemistry and related literature, including patents. Search by topic, author, compound name, molecular formula or structure.

Reaxys Medicinal Chemistry This link opens in a new window
Provides 'normalized substance–target affinity data and comprehensive pharmacokinetic, efficacy, toxicity, safety and metabolic profiles.'

Embase This link opens in a new window
Index to biomedical literature. Similar to PubMed but better indexed for drug names, drug classes and medical devices.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
FREE Index to biomedical literature from US National Library of Medicine.
If you have created an NCBI account to log in to PubMed, you now need to switch to a third party option, such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft or ORCID. Please refer to NCBI’s instructions and FAQs.

PharmaPendium This link opens in a new window
Searches FDA and EMA regulatory documents. We also subscribe to a pharmacokinetics module.
AdisInsight This link opens in a new window
A database for drug research and development, disease treatment and decision
making, based on scientifically sound data. It brings together essential information on drugs in commercial development, key clinical trials, deals, safety profiles, and patents. All data on the platform is reviewed, assessed and summarised by a team of scientists.

AdisInsight tutorials and user guides
Video tutorials and user guides on how to use AdisInsight

Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window
A collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, including systematic reviews.

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Index to journals and conference papers across all subject areas.

SDG Online This link opens in a new window
Taylor & Francis’ curated interdisciplinary collection of digital content mapped to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The collection includes more than 12,000 book chapters and journal articles, multi-format teaching resources, videos and lesson plans.

Inter-library loans service
If you find references to books, journals, articles or other materials we either do not stock in print or subscribe to online, you can request these via our Inter-library loans service. If you haven't used the service before you will need to register.

ClinicalTrials.gov
U.S. clinical trials - you can refine results by specific stages in the trial process.
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
Provided by WHO (World Health Organization).
ISRCTN Registry
Extensive details of proposed, ongoing and completed clinical trials - registry recognised by WHO & ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).
The National Research Registry
Pre-2008 NHS clinical research studies supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) in England.
Be Part of Research
NHS clinical research studies supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) in England.

Office for National Statistics This link opens in a new window
UK's economy, population and society at national/local level: summaries of key areas plus downloadable statistics into spreadsheets.
Office of Health Economics: healthcare statistics and data This link opens in a new window
Demographic/mortality/morbidity statistics across Europe and OECD countries, and NHS statistics (expenditure, health services, hospitals, workforce).

World Health Statistics
Annual reports provided by the World Health Organization.

SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window
E-books, articles, videos and case studies about research methods (quantitative, qualitative and mixed: including data analysis, interviews, focus groups, literature reviews and systematic reviews).
Springer Protocols This link opens in a new window
SpringerProtocols is a database of laboratory protocols in the biomedical and life sciences from 1980 and is hosted on the Springer Nature Experiments platform.

Library guide to how to do a literature search
Web search guide
A guide to using internet search engines, Google databases and alternative tools.

IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology This link opens in a new window
A searchable database of drug targets and the prescription medicines and experimental drugs that act on them.
ChEMBL This link opens in a new window
ChEMBL is a database of bioactive drug-like small molecules. It gives bioactivities abstracted from the literature and calculated properties. Search for compounds, targets or assays.
DrugBank This link opens in a new window
Free database of information on drugs and drug targets.