What does it mean?
In: Chemistry
The “mab” is short for “monoclonal antibody.” They take a line of immune cells and induce them to create antibodies to some specific target, then they purify the antibody and inject it into you.
Mab stands for monoclonal antibody. I think the vowel sound before it is just for better flow though.
It’s the standard suffix for monoclonal antibody therapies
Also, this is literally the first result when you Google “umab drug suffix” – if you had a specific question that isn’t answed by the top Google result then you really should include it, otherwise it just looks like your too lazy to Google your question
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibody_therapy#:~:text=Human%20monoclonal%20antibodies%20(suffix%20%2Dumab,production%20of%20appropriate%20monoclonal%20antibodies.
-mab denotes monoclonal antibodies. The preceding -u- indicates that they are fully human (as opposed to mouse, chimeric, humanized… etc).
Imagine you have a big box of Legos, and each Lego piece has a special job. Some might be for building walls, others for making windows, and some for creating special features. Drugs are kind of like Legos too, and their names help us understand what “job” they do.
Many modern drugs that end in “umab” are like special Lego pieces called **monoclonal antibodies**. These are tiny fighters made by our bodies that can target specific things like germs or bad cells, just like how Legos can be put together to make specific things.
The “umab” part of the name is like a code that tells us this is a special fighter Lego. It’s like a nickname for all these fighter Legos, so we know they work in a similar way.
So, next time you hear a drug name ending in “umab,” remember it’s like a tiny Lego fighter designed to fight a specific problem in your body!
The names indicate what kind of drug it is (to doctors and pharmacists who know the naming rules).
-mab is for monoclonal antibody drugs
-caine for local anesthetics eg benzocaine, lanacaine
-etine is for SSRIs (type of antidepressants) eg fluoxetine
-afil for erectile dysfunction meds eg sildenafil (Viagra)
-feb and -fene for estrogen response modifiers eg tamoxifen
etc. etc.
You can search “drug naming rules” or “pharmacological suffixes” to get big lists of these and what they all mean.
https://accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=1549§ionid=93411751
It’s how governments have internationally agreed drugs get named.
“Mab” on the end means it’s an antibody drug, and has to be on the end of any antibody drug name.
Source: I get to name drugs.
It’s a newer ish tech for how they create and deliver drugs. It’s pretty ingenious stuff actually. There’s tons of YouTube’s on the it you should take a look.
It’s not specifically about new drugs generally, when you notice common recurrences of endings to medication names like this, that usually mean all those drugs with common endings are all part of the same type of drug
-mab is short for “monoclonal antibody”, it’s a type of drug where they basically inject you with antibodies (yes antibodies like your immune system makes…mostly, there’s a bit of nuance here) to create a targeted strike on a particular thing. Obviously a type of drug based on the idea of attacking a very specific type of thing could be useful for a lot of stuff
The reason it seems like “all new drugs” are -mab drugs is because we’ve just made a lot of progress with monoclonal antibodies as a class of drugs, and they’re super useful so you’re seeing a lot of new drugs utilizing this approach.
Other people have already explained the mab nomenclature. How drugs are named in general is a bit complicated.
Pfizer actually has an extensive ELI5: https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/ever_wonder_how_drugs_are_named_read_on#
TLDR:. There are certain guidelines they follow, but they still have to get fairly creative. The drug name then has to go through approval by US, then WHO regulators, who often propose changes. The suffix, as others point out, indicate how the drug works.
The Pfizer article explains that the prefix is more complicated:
The prefix gets a little more creative. “We look for syllables that obviously are different from other existing generic names and that are pleasant enough in their tonality or appearance so it doesn’t become overly complex to try to pronounce the generic name,” says Quinlan. Celecoxib. Quinapril. Ziprasidone.
When devising those names, there are a number of rules that apply. Quinlan shared some of those rules:
It must use two syllables in the prefix. This will help distinguish the drug from others, and allows for more variety.
It must avoid certain letters. The generic drug name is created using the Roman alphabet, and the goal is to create a name that can be communicated globally. Because the letters Y, H, K, J, and W aren’t used in certain languages that use the Roman alphabet, they aren’t used in the creation of the prefix of the name.
It can’t be considered marketing. Using the company’s name within the drug’s name must be avoided. Also, it’s important to stay away from superlatives or laudatory terms (best, new, fastest, strongest) that could be considered promotional.
It avoids medical terminology.You don’t want to imply that a drug is intended only for one particular function, because in time, if it is also helpful for another purpose, the name could be reductive. “Say you were developing a treatment for oncology indications and you launched a product for those indications, but over time in further research you discovered it worked on inflammation and immunology indications. If you had something like “Onc-” in the beginning of your generic name that would be very limiting,” says Quinlan.
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