💊 Have you ever encountered these terms in pharmaceutical texts? At first sight, they both point to the drug being powerful but turn out to be different concepts upon a closer view.

Potency is the activity of a drug, the intensity of its action. When two drug products are compared, potency is defined as the drug dose required to achieve a particular effect of the desired intensity. Potency can be expressed differently (through the parameters of interaction with the target, for example), but the above definition is illustrative and quantitative.
The ScienceDirect webpage about potency offers many additional links and even graphs.

So, if drug A is more active than drug B, then a smaller dose of drug A is needed to provide the same effect. Yes, the smaller the drug dose required to achieve a particular effect of the desired intensity, the higher the activity (= potency). The smaller the potency value, the better (if we need a more active drug).
In English texts, potency can also be used as a synonym for "activity" without expressing it as a dose.

Strength is the amount of active substance in a unit of dosage form. It can coincide with the quantitative value of potency, but the typical definition of strength is not tied to activity. In some languages, "strength" can be translated as "dosage". However, you need to remember that "dosage" is also dose + frequency of administration + duration of administration (I explained it in detail in a previous post).

You will find an additional illustration in our YouTube video.

Do you have a similar pair of terms in your language?