therapeutic index

noun

|Updated on: 17 Jul 2018

Definition of therapeutic index

: a measure of the relative desirability of a drug for the attaining of a particular medical end that is usually expressed as the ratio of the largest dose producing no toxic symptoms to the smallest dose routinely producing cures

Recent Examples of therapeutic index from the Web

Many antibiotics have a sufficiently high therapeutic index to allow for a single dose to be used.

— richard klasco, New York Times, "Should Doctors Consider Body Size When Prescribing Drugs?," 8 June 2018
Because these trials are a mandatory step in the Food and Drug Administration approval process, each drug’s therapeutic index is well defined.

— richard klasco, New York Times, "Should Doctors Consider Body Size When Prescribing Drugs?," 8 June 2018
The therapeutic index is the ratio of a drug’s efficacy to its toxicity.

— richard klasco, New York Times, "Should Doctors Consider Body Size When Prescribing Drugs?," 8 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'therapeutic index.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.