Also Midixadud, Midixadrupin, Ibepokin.
Moving away from boner pills, Dave Barry once suggested Klambake as a possible generic drug name up for grabs.
Semaglutide - Ozempic
Tirzepatide - Zepbound
Retatrutide - not yet named
All of those are GLP-1s or at least adjacent, using small-molecule peptides. So clearly the “-tide” suffix indicates that peptide origin.
The addiction-treatment medication ReVia got its capital V after the manufacturer learned that certain Spanish speakers pronounce their Vs as Bs…and “Rebia” sounds like the Spanish word for “rabies.”
Likewise, there’s a real prevalent family of medications which end with -mab because they’re monoclonal antibodies.
Yup! Used to have adalimumab in the fridge. Now have abatacept, with the “cept” meaning it’s in a class of receptor fusion proteins.
25 years ago, in my grocery store pharmacy days, I’d get calls from people saying, “I need my isorbride, Norvasec, Zorcor, and (a fourth drug that escapes me right now) refilled. I hope you can understand me.” I would tell them, “We’ll do it!”
Isosorbide is an antiarrhymic for the heart. Norvasc (amlodipine) is for blood pressure. Zocor (simvastatin) is a cholesterol med. The fourth one was in the same family.
In the early days of RX drug advertising (have I ever said that I hate it?) Barry had a column where he said that Zocor sounded like the evil ruler of the planet Wombax.
Prilosec (omeprazole) was originally called Losec, when it was still prescription-only, and got the Pri- added because there were mixups between Losec and Lasix (furosemide). They have similar milligram strengths as well - 20 and 40mg doses.
When I was in school and newly minted in the early and mid 1990s, one of the most common mixups was Feldene (piroxicam), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and Seldane (terfenadine), a nonsedating antihistamine that was later taken off the American market because it had a lot of drug interactions. Allegra (fexofenadine) is an analogue of Seldane that has since gone OTC in the U.S., and yes, I have heard about pharmacy employees named Allegra being called Fexofenadine as a joke.
Piroxicam is rarely used nowadays.
Update: The fourth drug was pronounced “atenol.” Atenolol, for BP or heart rhythms.
With the success of the antidepressant Rexulti, expect followup drugs with names like Joyalpro, Regladipram and Simhappizine.
There’s a formulation of bupropion that’s called Forfivo. That’s pretty clever; it’s a 450mg once-daily extended-release tablet.
I also once saw a Preparation H knockoff called Formulation R, while we’re on that word.
That must be where I saw the “Klambake” comment.
I think that they are moving away from that for future biopharm drugs. I don’t know how they are going to name them though.
They could expand their naming pool considerably if they didn’t insist on putting in vowels in lexically correct locations