A Drug By Any Other Name

The naming of drugs has been described both as a science and an art, which is also true about marketing in general.
No matter what side of the brain is involved, there must be a reason why drug names are often ridiculed as being "absurd." The issue even made it to Saturday Night Live skit in which Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer sued Merck for naming dozens of drugs after members of her family ("Pharma Gets Drug Names from Octavia Spencer’s Phone Contact List").

Perhaps my reporting of that skit was the reason why my long-time friend, Jonathan Richman, founder and director of Dose Marketing in Cincinnati, posted a study he did of prescription drug names on LinkedIn. His post – titled “The Absurdity of Pharma Drug Names” – railed against the many drug names that are difficult to spell and pronounce. He questioned the validity of the “urban legend” that drugs are named this was to make them more memorable.
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