# Naming drugs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 3, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800 "2016-05-03T18:45:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800/1 "2016-05-03T18:45:43Z")

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Is there a naming convention that drug companies use for their drugs? Both the generic name and brand name? The one drug I know both names of off the top of my head is Metformin, brand name Glucophage. I can see were they got Glucophage from (eat sugar, right?) But what about something like Farxiga or Januvia? Where’d those names come from?  
P.S., I know Farxiga and Januvia are not metformin but I don’t know the generic name for these drugs.

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**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800/2 "2016-05-03T18:57:35Z")

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Broadly speaking, there’s a stem or suffix that indicates the drug’s class, such as -mab for monoclonal antibodies, or -inib for tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

[Wikipedia has some info on the stems.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_nomenclature)

and

[Generic stem names](http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/jsp/drugportal/DrugNameGenericStems.jsp)

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**Author:** ![TommySeven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@TommySeven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommySeven)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800/3 "2016-05-03T19:09:03Z")

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As **dasmoocher** says, generics follow a pattern. The brand names are just whatever they think would sell, same as any brand ([article](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,139084,00.html), “…the word Viagra, redolent of both ‘vigor’ and ‘Niagara,’ had been kicking around Pfizer for years, a brand name in search of a product”).

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**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800/4 "2016-05-03T19:13:47Z")

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One aspect of naming new drugs is trying to make sure they don’t sound the same as **old** drugs. Klonopin or clonidine? Cardene or Cardizem. Darvon or Diovan.  
That leads us to names like “Farxiga”.

[Article](http://www.xconomy.com/national/2011/05/09/why-are-drugs-getting-such-weird-brand-names/#)

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naming-drugs/753800/5 "2016-05-03T20:12:58Z")

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Thanks all.