Drug Names Don’t Have To Be Weird
“Why are drug names so weird?”
Ok yes, some are quite unusual but so are lots of other made-up brand names, like Spotify and Lululemon. Any new or unfamiliar word takes time to become familiar. So why do pharmaceuticals get such a bad rap?
In the case of pharmaceuticals, safely coexisting alongside other drug names in the global landscape is a big reason some drug names turn out weirder than others. Unique letter combinations and structures can certainly create tongue twisters, but patient safety with medication error prevention is always at the forefront.
Trademark ability is another key factor. In the United States alone, there are currently more than 170,000 active trademarks in class 5 (the classification for pharmaceuticals).[1] Finding something unique and ownable can be quite a challenge, so companies may try to create unusual letter combinations that have never been used before.
Not all pharmaceutical names are hard to pronounce. Take these for example:
Yescarta
Opdivo
Elahere
Sohonos
Sunlenca
While any new word takes time to master, you’ll notice that these names don’t include any unusual letter combinations or random X’s and Z’s. Some even contain real words that would be immediately recognizable by most English speakers (like “yes,” “here,” and “sun”).
The FDA and other global regulating bodies continue to approve new drugs every month. Regulations often require differentiation in any language to coexist safely, so we aren’t going to stop seeing weird-looking names any time soon. But continuing to learn about where these monikers may originate from in tandem with the creative process does help consumers appreciate the finished product. So the next time you read words like rosuvastatin (brand name Crestor) or onabotulinumtoxina (brand name Botox), remember it isn’t just a silly-sounding combination of letters trying to cause confusion!
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https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks