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Show Thursday, October Prescription drug names may baffle 13, 1994 -f THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Top 1 0 prescription drug, ! The drugs in the United States in 1993. what tt treat, their distributor, and the amount sold, as published by Ad News, a trade publication: 5k ..I T II : jr. . di ion. .maniac; uicers ."tl uiaxo Moiainssr-LL,ii.y 2. Procardia; heart pain, high blood pressure; Pfizer t $1.2 billion. 3. Mevacor; high cholesterol; Merck & Co. ; $ . billion. 4. Vasotec; high blood pressure; Merck & Co.; $895jiiilliojff J 5. Prozac; depression; Eli Lilly & Co.; $875 million; . ZjHrt. u. vdiuiicni, ncau yam, nign oioou pressure; Marioji rvierrv j Dow Inc.; $797 million. ; 7. Tagamet; ulcers; SmithKline Beecham PLC; $648 millif 8. Premarin; Lul pain; best-selli- the seas. Premarin, for pain, is made from pregnant Manufacturers claim no fault on label jumble ; mares' urine. Neurontin treats neurons or nerve cells to prevent epileptic seizures. Estroderm is a patch that secretes the hormone estrogen through the skin. Unfortunately, catchy phrases get overused. So, Cardura for high blood pressure sounds like Cardizem and Procardia for heart pa- Some drugmakers name their products after what they do, which organs mey treat or me cnemicai origins. ry matcfttng me I By STEVE SAKSON AP Business Writer - , NEW YORK Quick, what ! , was that prescription your father takes for his ulcer? Zantac? Xanax? Zenate? " i Or that heart drug your uncle takes. Cardizem? Procardia? Car dura? Or that new breast cancer drug, Taxol or was it Paxil? Pharmaceutical makers seem intent on tying the American tongue with brand names that defy linguistic logic and often look and sound like one another. While other new product names are designed to be memorable, drug companies seem to live in a nether world of founded by ancient Greeks and populated only by doctors and druggists. " It's not it's also just confusing X. Ansaid A. Reduces cholesterol 1 Glucotrol t, S. Cardene C. Smoking cessation skin patch Treats anxiety 4. Omnipaque S. Controls blood sugar I. Claritin K. Makes organs stand out on CAT scans t. Premarin R Oenetically engineered vaccine 0. 7. PravachoJ I, - Xanax mm Some companies prefer H. Estrogen, from the urine of pregnant mares i'-- 0-- 0 1 d-- 6 L A nonsteroidal If, Nicoderm I. Clears nasal passages '8-- 8 'V-- Z 'H--9 'P-- S '3-f- r 'O-- 'QrZ drug I 'H :sjesuv APBob Blanchlnl phar-mo-jarg- dangerous. Misunderstandings over names have led to fatal mistakes in prescriptions. Drugmakers say they want names that are easy to remember, pronounce and spell, but that it's a difficult goal to reach. "There are only 26 letters in the Roman alphabet and there's a glut of trademarks," said Marty a naming executive with Merck & Co., the world's largest drugmaker. Ma-zure- k, Companies also face a complex naming process, watched over by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and trademark offices in every country where they want to sell drugs. So sometimes, even when they think they've found that moniker, it can perfect five-lettend up translating to something like "death" in Chinese. As a result, finding new drug names can cost up to $200,000 and take up to four years, companies say. "Desperation in finding a name has driven a lot of name developer ment to very arbitrary, gibberish-typ- e names," said Nan Budinger, creative director of Metaphor Name Consultants in San Francis- when scientists at Bayer AG in Germany found a new painkiller in the sap of a shrub called spiraea. They simply took the root phrase "spir," put an "a" in front of it and an "in" in back and came up with aspirin. Now, the process begins years before the drug is sold, while scientists are still testing it in humans. First, international groups develop a generic name for the drug. This is the name that will apply to the chemical compound no matter which company makes it. Drug company naming committees include doctors, pharmacists, linguists, marketers, researchers and even English teachers. They start with hundreds of candidates from a computerized random name generator or those they dream up on their own. The namers pick out those easiest to say and spell and discard those that are too similar to existing drugs or those with unwanted meanings in English or other languages. Then, they're reviewed by government regulators. Since 1990, the FDA has been the final name arbiter, further weeding out lookalike names and those with too much marketing "puffery," like Fatoff or Getwell, said Yana Mille, a labeling regulator. "'Wonder' has been used and accepted as the name of a bread, but it is not an acceptable name for co. The drug naming process is much different than back in 1899, a drug," she told conference in May. rejected a third of all For instance, the 1 a trademarks The FDA has names. FDA rejected the name Regaine for Upjohn' s hair restoration drug, but approved Rogaine. Traditionally, many drug names have Greek or Latin roots. "Zo," for example, is a Greek prefix meaning life, "pro" is Greek and Latin for before, or in front of. "Bene" means well. These help the drugs sound medicinal, a key ingredient. Without Wyeth-Ayers- es rt non- C 9. Cipro; respiratory, skin, bone infections; Miles It 3bl J.y million. 10. Epogen; anemia caused by kidney failure, AIDS dnj chemotherapy; Amgen Inc.; $586.9 million. sense words because they're less likely to cause a trademark conflict. Many began relying on the letters X and Z because they stand out from others, but they've become overused too. So there's Zantac for ulcers, Xanax for anxiety and Zenate, a vitamin supplement. The results of this confusion can be harrowing. In 1992, the wife of a New York State appeals court judge died after a hospital that should have given her Paraplatin, a Bristol-Myer- s Squibb drug for ovarian cancer, instead gave her Platinol, a different cancer drug. Two years earlier, doctors were about to do exploratory surgery on a Colorado glaucoma patient who had consistently low blood sugar checked her medication and found that she had been given Diabinese, a drug for diabetics, instead of the glaucoma drug, Diamox. Because of her bad vision, she couldn't tell them apart on the label. We've Got Everything for Home Fitness n Sale I I ' K TeROBICRfcfer -- Merck had to rename its ulcer drug Losec to Prilosec because some patients were getting the fluid reduction drug Lasix instead. The confusion was blamed for at least one death. The most popular fitness machine we've ever stocked! Fun and safe for all ages. Quiet, smooth action is easy on muscles and joints. 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Pepcid is for peptic ulcers. Halcion, a sleeping pill, is reminiscent of halcyon, the mythological Greek bird that calmed Mar-guli- 1 it tients. Treats angina (heart pain) . Recombivax 1 ' 11 fit |