A systematic study aiming at establishing an extended cross‐section database of mainly proton capture reactions of nuclei in the Se‐Sb region is presented. Such a database is required to perform a validity test of the Hauser‐Feshbach (HF) calculations in the medium‐mass region that will enable to investigate the impact of nuclear physics uncertainties onp‐nuclei abundance calculations. The results of this systematic work as well as a comparison of all existing cross‐section data with the predictions of the HF theory are presented. Several aspects of all the experiments performed so far including a recent in‐beam cross section measurement of the92Mo(&agr;, &ggr;)96Ru reaction are outlined. The question of whether the experimental information obtained so far is sufficient to draw final conclusions is discussed. © 2004 American Institute of Physics