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Why medicines have strange names

Pharmaceutical drug companies have a method for naming medicines that may seem unusual.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There’s a reason the name of your medicine is so strange.

Let’s connect the dots.

International approval

Before naming a drug, pharmaceutical companies need the approval of the United States Food and Drug Administration and international equivalents. This means that drugmakers generally avoid the letters H, J, K, W, and Y in the first syllable since those letters aren’t common in some other languages.

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Behind the drug name

The last syllable indicates the drug’s classification. For example, a drug ending in “-tide” means it belongs to the class of drugs used for weight loss, such as semaglutide – the generic form of brands such as Wegovy or Ozempic.

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Brand names

When it comes to brand-name medicines, drugmakers have a bit more flexibility. However, the names must be unique so they cannot be found anywhere else. That is why "Qs", "Xs" and "Zs” are often used because they are not common in most other words. That is how drugmakers came up with names like Farxiga and Otezla.

Naming the drug

There is a fine science for finding the perfect, although odd, names for our medicines.

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