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’ ?
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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.
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