Abstract

The nomenclature of drugs is a complex process. A drug generally has three different categories of names from its discovery to the arrival in the market: chemical name, non-proprietary name and proprietary name. While chemical name is given when a new chemical entity (NCE) is developed and it describes the substance chemically, the non-proprietary name of a drug is the accepted name by a competent scientific body/authority. As the name suggests, the proprietary name or brand name is the name assigned by the manufacturer(s) and is the sole property or trade mark of the concerned pharmaceutical company developing it. The non-proprietary names of newer drugs are kept uniform by an agreement to use the Recommended International Nonproprietary Name (rINN) in all member countries of World Health Organization (WHO). The system of INN of drugs was initiated by WHO and began operating in 1953. The crux of the non-proprietary naming system is the collection of short name fragments called stems. They define the pharmacologically related group to which the INN belongs. The WHO uses its stem classification system in INN Programme by following a core list to categorize the main activity of pharmaceutical substances. Each category included in the list has an appropriate code consisting of a capital letter and three digits, category, specific stem and appropriate information..

Keywords: Chemical Name; Non-proprietary Name; Proprietary Name; INN System

References

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Citation

Citation: Dhriti Kr Brahma., et al. “An Introduction to Drug Nomenclature". Acta Scientific Pharmaceutical Sciences 5.11 (2020): 42-44.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Dhriti Kr Brahma., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.