How to Name a Drug

If you ever watch regular TV anymore, you are exposed to drugs constantly, because pharmaceutical companies buy all the ad space. You don't know what they are for, but you hear the names constantly: Tremfya, Rinvoq, Cialis, Dupixent, Skyrizi, and you can't actually ask your doctor if any are right for you because she'd probably laugh. The best drug name I've heard is Flonase, which tells you exactly what it does, but most of them seem like gibberish. You might think that naming them is a matter of drawing Scrabble tiles out of a box, yet that's far from what happens. Drug names have to be approved by a lot of different boards or organizations, mainly to make sure yours is different enough from all the other drugs so that they won't be confused. And there are tons of guidelines to follow. Half as Interesting takes us through the arcane procedure of naming a new drug. Note: some countries do it differently, because the UK does call that drug NovoRapid, and Rogaine is known as Regaine in Australia.