'Convert Drugs Premium' finds equivalent medications in 220 countriesMumbai, Mar 20(AZINS) Even with a prescription in your pocket, finding the right drug on the other side of the world can be a real headache. Now, "Convert Drugs Premium," a new application developed by a French pharmacist, lets users find equivalent medications in 220 countries.

A veritable gold mine of information for travellers equipped with an iPhone or an iPad, this new application can find an equivalent drug in pharmacies in India, Thailand or Greece, for example, with 220 countries covered.

Convert Drugs Premium was developed by Daniel Elbaz, a 61-year-old French pharmacist. Unable to help tourists in his own pharmacy in France, he came up with the idea of building a giant database of medication, translated into 11 languages. After 10 years of research, involving data from government health ministries all over the world, Daniel Elbaz collected 1.5 million commercial names for 8,000 generic molecules.

Each drug featured in the app comes with a list of countries where it's available. Travellers can then select the country they're visiting to see the local name of the product they need, as well as how it's written, which is especially useful for non-Latin languages like Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Hindi, etc. The app helps travellers communicate with health professionals in one of 11 languages, including Hebrew, Chinese, Thai and Russian.

The application works without an Internet connection and is available in three versions. The free version offers limited access, while a more comprehensive "Pro" version ($4.99 or €4.99) lets users find an equivalent product in their country of choice. However, it only includes the most common drugs. A "Premium" version is more suitable for health professionals, offering a detailed database referencing common drugs as well as medication used in hospital facilities ($7.99 or €7.99).

Daniel Elbaz is currently working on an extension for the application aimed at identifying counterfeit drugs.

The application should soon be available for all smartphones.