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QN Nervous system N
QP Antiparasitic products, insecticides and repellents P
QR Respiratory system R
QS Sensory organs S
QV Various V
The complete classification of ampicillin for systemic use illustrates the structure of the ATC
code:
J
General antiinfectives for systemic use (1st level, anatomical main group)
01 Antibacterials for systemic use (2nd level group, therapeutic main group)
C Beta-lactam antibacterials, penicillins (3rd level group, therapeutic subgroup)
A Penicillins with extended spectrum (4th level group, chemical/therapeutic
subgroup)
01 ampicillin (5th level code, subgroup for chemical substance)
Thus, in the ATC system, all plain ampicillin products for systemic use should be classified
using the code J01CA01.
In most cases an ATC code exists which can be used to classify a product in the ATCvet system.
The ATCvet code is then created by placing the letter Q in front of the ATC code.
An ATCvet classification code is thus built up as follows:
Example: Ampicillin
Level 1 2 3 4 5
ATC code J 01 C A 01
ATCvet code QJ 01 C A 01
2. Classification principles
2.1 General principles
The ATCvet system for the classification of veterinary medicines is based on the same overall
principles as the ATC system for substances used in human medicine. In most cases, an ATC
code exists which can be used to classify a product in the ATCvet system. The ATCvet code is
then created by placing the letter Q in front of the ATC code.
When the human classification is not considered relevant, a specific ATCvet group or 5th level
code can be established in order to make the classification more relevant for veterinary medicine.
However, such changes are kept down to a minimum in order to leave the two systems as similar
as possible.
Usually, specific ATCvet groups are only established for veterinary products whose indications
differ from those of similar human products, e.g. immunologicals for veterinary use (QI),
antibacterials for intramammary use (QJ51) and gynecological antiinfectives and antiseptics for
intrauterine use (QG51).
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