I’m just imagining a room full of people coming up with dozens of random jingles using random letters that almost sound like English before shipping it off to marketing to sell as the “next big drug”
The USAN (United States Adopted Name) Council comes up with the drug names. They’re an independent group who assigns nonproprietary names to new drugs.
Drug companies can give their drug a brand name (like “Zyrtec”) but the USAN Council decides the universal name (like “Cetirizine”) first.Drugs actually have three names:
- chemical name
- prescription name
- marketing name
https://www.goodrx.com/drugs/medication-basics/how-are-drugs-named
The Naming of Drugs is a difficult matter;
It isn’t just one of your holiday games.
You might think at first I’m as mad as a hatter,
When I tell you a drug must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
Chemists write papers where precision is key, so they’ll use an IUPAC name like (RS)-N-methyl-1-phenylpropan-2-amine.
The title of the paper will use the trivial name N-methylamphetamine, because it’s easier for everyone, but still precise enough.
People who buy and sell the drug, use one of the trade names, such as: speed, ice, chalk, dunk, pookie, rotten candy, rocket fuel etc. at this point though, all precision goes out the window. The product usually contains a variable mixture of fun and interesting surprise compounds and even the concentration of the active ingredient can be all over the place.
They come up with the price first and then times it by 80
Marketers never sleep.
(because of the cocaine)
Thermos brand Thermo
There’s a film that covers how they named Gleemonex:
I’ve always heard that there are people or companies who do nothing but trademark fancy-sounding product names and then sell them to car and drug manufacturers. I read it on the internet so it must be true.
