MEDICAL MATTERS:How do companies come up with drug names, asks MUIRIS HOUSTON
IT’S THE morning after a bank holiday: many of you will be on holiday and for those who are reluctantly returning to work today, some gentle easing in is required.
Therefore, this week’s column will be lighter than usual.
So a joke to start with, albeit one related to the main subject.
A sceptical anthropologist was cataloguing South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal Medicine Man who indicated the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation.
When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the Medicine Man looked him in the eye and said, “Let me tell you, with fronds like these, you don’t need enemas.”
Those of us who take regular medication will have learned to juggle two names for the drug we are on: the trade name, which is the one in the largest print on the box of tablets, and the generic name, which is derived from the chemical structure of the drug.
Generally patients stick with the trade name, while doctors are encouraged as part of their training to focus on the drug’s generic name.
In practice, it means we have to be familiar with both names, and, in particular, you learn to automatically “translate” from trade to generic as the person tells you what drugs they are taking.
It would be a lot easier, of course, if we all stuck with the generic name. But that would deny the marketing departments the fun of inventing appropriate sounding names for their products.
How do pharmaceutical companies come up with branded drug names such as Floxapen or Protium?
According to a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a commercial naming company called Lexicon has a 77-member geo-linguistics team spread around the world that covers 53 languages. They’ve been busy researching how English names are perceived in foreign markets.
In a 2001 study, Lexicon linguists tested emotional qualities to try to determine whether words sounded alive, daring, sad or insecure.
One of the questions was: Which sounds more alive, Sekka or Zekka?
They found that sounds like k, b and z were deemed more alive and daring, so Zekka came out on top. And that r, l and n sounds were smoother and mellower, even sometimes sadder. X and Z are used frequently in drug names: think Xanax, Celebrex and Zyban.
The company that came up with Levitra, an erectile dysfunction drug, reportedly took its name from “elevate”, with the “vit” part suggesting vital. But sometimes the explanation for a name is slightly more logical.
Lipitor, the best selling cholesterol-lowering agent which has just come off patent, takes the “lip” from “lipid-
regulator”, which is what the drug does and the “tor” from atorvastatin, the generic name.
Companies don’t always get it right. Urban legend has it that some bright spark suggested that Viagra be called Mycoxaflopin. Mind you, it does sound medical, albeit reminiscent of the brand name for an antibiotic or anti-fungal agent rather than a treatment for erectile dysfunction.
In the US, there is an acid reflux drug called Aciphex, which on paper looks good. However, once the TV ads for the product began, all people heard from the television in the background was “ass effects.” Which, admittedly, might have worked if the drug was for flatulence.
Marketing techniques have influenced individuals too. How far would Shania Twain have got as Eileen Regina Edwards or Portia De Rossi as Mandy Rogers? And as globalisation becomes the norm, companies are becoming aware of the need to have brand names that translate effectively across borders.
Poor Audi weren’t thinking when they named a sports car the E-Tron; etron means excrement in French.
If we want to promote the use of generic drugs, we really need to be more imaginative in original chemical naming.
The chemists have form when it comes to these things: vomicine is a poisonous molecule that gets its name from the East Indian nut Nux Vomica. And how about crapinon, another molecule which (almost) does what it says on the tin. As an anticholinergic agent, it dries bodily secretions and strongly constipates. “Crappy-non” anyone?