eli5: Why do medicines have such weird names?

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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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10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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?

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