So many, many weeks ago Kelsey, a fellow reader/PGH Health Corps Alumni who gets a shout out every now and then for fun articles, posted an article describing how drugs actually get their names. Frequently I create place holders on my blog for interesting articles I want to share, but either have no time to type them up or there are other "more pressing" things. When I was creating the title for this post I started looking for long medication names and felt that Methylprednisolone looked pretty good. I can report that when I pulled up this post today I knew, without hesitating, that it is a common corticosteroid drug which goes by the brand name Medrol and Solu-Medrol. I guess some of that pharm stuff is sticking.
Now back to the the original post topic - how drugs are named. While you should definitely read the article, I pulled out a few interesting points:
- Companies can spend $250,000 to $2.5 million just to come up with a medicine’s name
- Drug companies strive for their drug names to be:
- A name consumers will find inspiring, comforting, authoritative, fast-acting, or personable
- Tell doctors and patients something about the drug—to evoke a mechanism of action or an emotional state or lifestyle
- Allows doctors and pharmacists to say it and write it without confusion (MAS IMPORTANTE!!!)
- Be recognized in any language around the world
Drugs will have three names:
- chemical name: 7-chloro-1,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one
- A Generic name: Diazepam
- A brand name: Valium
You probably will not see “h,” “j,” “w,” “k” and “th” in drug names any time soon because languages other than English have a hard time pronouncing them.
It is also interesting to note that the US and New Zealand the only countries IN THE WORLD which allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. If you have some time on your hands, or having a hard time falling asleep, this article gives the pros and cons to both sides of the argument.
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