They’re all called things like Zyrtec or Imbruvica. What is the convention that’s used to create these names, and why can’t they just be called something normal, like … I dunno, ‘Headache-Be-Gone’ ?
In: 20
Nowadays, when doctors give names they try to make seem as nice as possible, and most medicines don’t do just one thing. If there are two medicines that cure a headache, how do we tell between the two?
Not sure about other countries but in the UK as with everything in the UK, its highly regulated.
Names like XL or MAX can only be used if it meets certain requirements, it can’t just say it.
Pharmacist here
Brand names used to be more clever and picked by nerds. Sinemet meant sin (latin/without) and emesis (vomiting) for when they added an ingredient to make l-dopa be able to not cause as much nausea
These days they’re mostly made by marketing which makes sense since these are billion dollar products. Q’s, X’s and Z’s are popular to make you remember / seem cutting edge idk
Generic names are the actual chemical, these usually have some type of chemistry nomenclature. Later entries to the same class of drug / similar structure and similar mechanism will often have a root word in common such as atorvastatin, simvastatin, rosuvastatin etc. The generic names are going to be a bit more regulated than the brand names which can be whatever fanciful name.
Generic names, esp for new drugs, go thru a screening process that involves a bunch of high level international health orgs like WHO. They are roughly based on chemical composition, effects, similarity to similar drugs. They also have to be comprehensible in multiple languages and not be so similar to something else that they could be confused. This is an international process, same for everyone. (I did read once that this essentially comes down to two women in Ohio who just make up names. Not sure how accurate that is.)
Then you get to do it again with the brand name, which has more of a marketing focus but has roughly the same goals, easy to remember, can’t be confused with something else, doesn’t seem to promise something that it doesn’t actually do, doesn’t infringe on another company’s product, etc. Different countries have different regulations here, so you can get the same product with the same active ingredient with two different brand names eg Brintellix was deemed too close to Bristeq? so in the US it’s called Trintellix.
Because normal people would call them after the way they fix or the illness, I thought Mycoxafloppin would be far better than viagra.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned trademark. It’s nearly impossible to find a non-offensive name that’s also able to be trademarked in all the countries where the drug is going to be sold. Trademark plays a HUGE role in all of this – then you have to add in regional slang, and it gets even tricker.
For example, outside of the drug realm, there’s a myth that the Chevy Nova (a car) didn’t sell well in Mexico because “No Va” means “doesn’t go” in spanish. Well, if your made up drug name is something like “Aguamuerte” then you might be fine in Finland and Japan, but in any spanish speaking country that would mean “death water” – probably not something you’d want to name a drug.
So now you have to find something you can trademark in all the countries you want to sell in, it has to clear translations in proper language, and slang language in all those countries, and as a few of the pharmacists chiming in have mentioned, it also typically has a name that is in some way related to the function of the drug itself. When you combine those 3 things, you end up having to come up with some very weird names.
Generics and some older brand name drugs often have names that are shortened forms of the full name of the active ingredient or the biological source in which is was discovered, or which produced a precursor chemical.
N-**acet**yl-para-**aminophen**ol *→ acetaminophen*
N-**acet**yl-**para**-**am**inophen**ol →** *paracetamol*
N-ace**tyl**-para-aminoph**enol →** *Tylenol™*
**a**cetyl**s**alicylic **a**cid → *ASA*
**a**cetylsalicylic acid (Active ingredient) + **Spir**ea (plant genus from which it can be derived) + “-**in**” (Suitably scientific sounding ending) *→ Aspirin™*
**i**so**bu**tyl**phen**yl**pro**pionic acid (Active ingredient) *→ ibuprophen*
**Penicill**ium (Genus of mould that produces it) + “-**in**” (Suitably scientific sounding ending) *→ penicillin*
**Opium** (genus of poppy that produces it) *→* *opium*
Brand name drugs often get names built out of words that evoke the feelings the marketers want to associate with the drug. These are often influenced by older drug names as customers expect new drugs to have names that “sound like drug names”
**hero**isch (German word for “hero”) + “-**in**” (Suitably scientific sounding ending) *→ Heroin™*
**Morph**eus (Roman god of sleep) + “-**ine**” (Suitably scientific sounding ending) *→ morphine*
For any given product to get to you there may be many versions and prototypes. The company retains rights to those other variants for reasons. But every one still needs a name… so there are no good ones left. Dunno if it’s true for sure but I did hear it from a lecturer in a drugs/medications course.
Each drug has several names.
The chemical name is often very long and difficult to remember, but it describes precisely the structure of the chemical.
The generic name has a part that’s unique plus an ending that government drug approvers use to tell the type of drug. For example, if it ends in “-mab” it is a monoclonal antibody. The unique part can be anything, but it’s typically either based on Latin or Greek words describing what it does (more common in older drugs), the disease it works on, or something about the drug’s target — but it could be anything.
Then, a drug maker also gives their own version of the drug a brand name. These names are sometimes selected by naming contests in the company (seriously), or in consultation with a company that makes up names and logos. The names have to be unique and not already in use, they should be pretty different than other existing drugs names, ideally they be short and easy to remember, and importantly they can’t be a real word in any country where the drug be sold (they can’t sound like a dirty word or swear word in the countries either).
I work for a drug company, and our drug brand names are based on naming contests. They all contain hidden in the name a reference to the gene or protein they affect. The gene and protein names were proposed by the first people to describe them and standardized by international committees that exist to make sure scientists consistently use the same name for a thing — before those committees existed there might have been a dozen different names for a given gene or protein.
To add to this, drug companies actually aren’t allowed to have a name that implies their drug works. That’s why the names seem so random and not related to the thing they treat.
“The USAN Council is, therefore, aware of the importance of coining names that will not be confused with other drug names, compromise patient safety, or mislead health care professionals and patients about the action or use of a new drug substance.” [source](https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-do-drugs-get-named/2019-08)
Best to just avoid giving it a name related to its biological action at all in case doctors get confused or they want to use the drug for a different purpose in the future. (Would encourage anyone to read the rest of the link too, very cool discussions about why generic names are necessary and about the early ages of medicine when doctors felt that they shouldn’t tell the patients the name of the drugs they were taking at all!)
Latest Answers