This article about weird drug names was written by Dennis Miller, R.Ph., a retired chain store pharmacist. His book, The Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets, can be downloaded in its entirety at Amazon for 99 cents.
The Evolution of Weird Drug Names: From Descriptive to Absurd
A few decades ago, the pharmaceutical manufacturers often tried to create brand names that helped consumers identify the medical condition being treated. Pharma seemed to place some value in creating names that suggested or implied the drug’s intended purpose.
For example:
- Premarin, for post-menopausal symptoms, contains estrogen that is derived from “pregnant mares’ urine.”
- Viagra, for impotence, implies the immense power of Niagara Falls.
- Lopressor lowers blood pressure.
- Lipitor lowers lipids.
- Xanax, for anxiety, sounds a lot like “anxiety” and conjures up images of Xanadu, which Webster’s Dictionary defines as “an idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place.”
- Halcion, for insomnia, suggests “halcyon” which Webster’s defines as “calm, peaceful.”
- Librium, for anxiety, restores “equilibrium.”
- The blood pressure/angina pill Procardia is “pro” (for) + “cardia” (heart).
Weird drug names approved by the FDA in 2024
Here are FDA’s novel drug approvals as of December 2024. “Novel” drugs are new drugs never before approved or marketed in the U.S.
Tryngolza, Ensacove, Crenessity, Unloxcyt, Bizengri, Iomervu, Rapiblyk, Attruby, Ziihera, Revuforj, Orlynvah, Vyloy, Hympavzi, Itovebi, Flyrcado, Cobenfy, Aqneursa, Miplyffa, Ebglyss, Lazcluze, Niktimvo, Livdelzi, Nemluvio, Yorvipath, Voranigo, Leqselvi, Kisunla, Ohtuvayre, Piasky, Sofdra, Iqirvo, Rytelo, Imdelltra, Xolremdi, Ojemda, Anktiva, Lumisight, Zevtera, Voydeya, Vafseo, Winrevair, Duvyzat, Tryvio, Rezdiffra, Tevimbra, Letybo, Exblifep, Zelsuvmi
In my opinion, of the 48 novel drugs approved by FDA so far in 2024, only one drug brand name reflects some aspect of its intended use. That is Lumisight which includes “sight” probably because this drug is used as an “optical” imaging agent for the detection of cancerous tissue.
Why Are Weird Brand Names So Trendy?
Why have pharmaceutical companies embraced so many weird and wacky drug names? Why do they seldom reflect their intended use? Are these drug brand names generated by a computer?
Does the fact that drug brand names are so bizarre say something about our culture and society? Does it reflect a depersonalization and a dehumanization in a dystopian society? Does it reflect a medical system which seems to value technology more than humanity?
Why are drug brand names so unspellable, unpronounceable, and incomprehensible today?
In my opinion, there’s an interesting phenomenon taking place in the world of pills. That is the creation and utilization of drug brand names that are unspellable, unpronounceable, incomprehensible, and lacking any resemblance to the English language that we grew up with.
What motivates drug companies to create such bizarre drug brand names? Has our society, which is overflowing with pills, simply exhausted the reservoir of meaningful, evocative, and descriptive brand names?
Weird drug names seem completely removed from the natural world:
Drug names today seem to have come from another planet. That is not surprising because Big Pharma’s mechanistic and reductionist view of Homo sapiens completely removes humans from any connection to the natural world. In my opinion, drug names which lack human qualities facilitate the perception that the human body is a machine.
In addition, drug names today seem to be as impersonal and sterile as the modern glass and steel skyscrapers which have dominated and dehumanized our cities.
In my opinion, the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry has portrayed Homo sapiens as separate and divorced from the natural world is quite remarkable. By dehumanizing the human body, Pharma can more easily convince the public that chemical solutions are needed for every human ill. Pharma profoundly trivializes the human experience by implying that we are nothing more than a crude collection of chemicals which need to be whipped into line with synthetic chemicals called pharmaceuticals.
Portraying health as dependent on technology facilitates a pill-centric view:
Pharma definitely doesn’t want you to closely associate health with nutrition, lifestyles, a clean environment, etc. Pharma wants you to view human health as a consequence of technological intervention. Good nutrition, healthy lifestyles, clean air, clean water, etc. are irrelevant in (and antithetical to) the narrative that Pharma promulgates to facilitate a pill-centric view of human health.
Establishing the Origin of Weird Brand Names is Challenging:
Xanax
Many years ago, I asked the editor at American Druggist whether she would be interested in me writing an article about the origins of drug brand names. The editor told me that I could not simply write an article based on pure conjecture. She said that I would need to contact the drug companies and ask how they chose each specific brand name. That seemed like a very time-consuming process for any article that discussed more than a few brand names. But I told her I would give it a try and see how it went.
My first phone call was to Upjohn, the company that marketed Xanax at that time. (Upjohn was later sold to Pharmacia and then to Pfizer.) Xanax, for anxiety, was and is a very popular drug name. (Most people take this drug today as the generic alprazolam.)
I finally reached what I think was the marketing department. To my surprise, I made zero headway in trying to find out the origin of the brand name Xanax. The person I spoke with at Upjohn seemed to suggest that the origin of the name Xanax was protected marketing information or a trade secret that the manufacturer had no intention of divulging.
My conclusion was that drug companies don’t want to admit when there may be some kind of psychological manipulation driving the choice of drug brand names. I assume that the person I spoke with at Upjohn didn’t want to admit that perhaps the psychology driving the naming of Xanax was (my speculation) the similarity to the word “anxiety.” In addition, Xanax looks like Xanadu, a place of idyllic beauty. Xanax may have appeal because it is a palindrome. In other words, the name Xanax reads the same backward or forward.
I told the editor about the difficulty I had with the marketing department at Upjohn in trying to determine the origin of the brand name Xanax. The editor told me that in my article I should describe the difficulty I had in finding out the origin of the brand name Xanax when I called the manufacturer. And I should state in my article that I was indeed speculating about many of the origins of the brand names.
Coumadin
Some names are, of course, rather obvious. For example, the brand name Coumadin obviously comes from 4-hydroxycoumarin. Interestingly, the generic name for Coumadin is warfarin. The first four letters in warfarin come from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. (Biochemist Karl Paul Link was a University of Wisconsin graduate. He was fiercely loyal to the school’s cause and named his discovery of warfarin after the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation [WARF], which had funded his work.)
Premarin
There is no controversy about the origin of the post-menopausal estrogen Premarin: “pregnant mares urine.” This drug is isolated from the urine of pregnant mares.
Prozac
I’d like to know the origin of the brand name “Prozac” but I don’t recall seeing any compelling speculation in that regard.
Viagra
Many people say that the brand name “Viagra” (for erectile dysfunction) suggests the immense power of Niagara Falls. I recall reading speculation that the origin of the brand name Viagra is related to “vagina.” If you change the letter “r” in Viagra to an “n” and rearrange some letters, Viagra becomes “vagina.”
Lipitor
It is pretty obvious that “Lipitor” comes from the fact that this drug lowers lipids.
Lopressor
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word pressor as “raising or tending to raise blood pressure” also: “involving or producing an effect of vasoconstriction.” It is fairly obvious that the name Lopressor was chosen because it lowers blood pressure.
Paxil
Paxil (for depression) perhaps comes from the fact that “pax” is Latin for “peace.” Perhaps the idea was that Paxil brings inner peace.
“20 Drug Name Origins That May Surprise You”
The following brand names are from an article in Pharmacy Times (Dec. 18, 2015) that is surely partly speculation. But it is speculation based on some pretty obvious concepts.
- Actigall: acts on the gallbladder
- Bactroban: “ban” bacteria
- Emend: ends emesis
- Emla: abbreviation for Eutectic Mixture of Local Anesthetics
- Glucophage: phage=“to eat” in Greek, gluco=glucose
- Lasix: lasts 6 hours
- Muse: abbreviation for Medicated Urethral Suppository for Erection
- Nystatin: derived from the New York State Health Department Laboratory
- Prevacid: prevent acid
- Rapamune: made from bacteria discovered on the island of Rapa Nui
- Sonata: sona, which means “sleepy” in Portuguese
- Valium: vale, which is Latin for “goodnight”
- Zicam: zinc works at the ICAM-1 receptor
Are Weird Brand Names Generated by Computers?
Today’s bizarre drug brand names seem to be randomly generated by a computer to avoid duplication with other equally bizarre drug brand names. It is as if a computer were generating drug brand names just like a computer generates available (inactive or unused) phone numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, account numbers for electric and water bills, etc. to avoid duplication with numbers currently in use.
Pharmaceuticals seem to have completely transcended the real world:
They now exist as creations of the marketing department at the drug companies. According to Marcia Angell, M.D., formerly the editor-in-chief at The New England Journal of Medicine (The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It, New York: Random House, 2004):
“[The pharmaceutical industry] over the past two decades has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the U.S. Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself.”
In my opinion, marketing has replaced science as the primary driver of pharmaceuticals today. The pharmaceutical industry has succeeded spectacularly in creating its own reality to encourage the acceptance of pills for everything. This is a massive reality distortion field which has bamboozled the public and, in too many cases, health professionals as well.
Cartoon characters selling prescription drugs
Big Pharma has utilized cartoon characters like a turkey to sell Chantix (for smoking cessation), an owl to sell Xyzal (for allergies), a gremlin to sell Lamisil (for toenail fungus), and a mucous-like creation to sell Mucinex (for nasal mucous).
Pharma also utilizes famous actors/actresses and athletes to sell drugs, even though it should be obvious that actors, actresses and athletes have zero training in pharmacology and therefore have zero credibility on the subject of pharmaceuticals.
In my opinion, the pharmaceutical industry has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams in creating a narrative and an alternative reality to exploit gullible and naive consumers.
Pharma’s fascination with the letter “Q”
In the English language, words beginning with the letter “q” are usually followed by the letter “u.” Pharma seems to love to depart from that practice by creating very odd drug brand names such as
- Qalsody
- Qbrelis
- Qbrexza
- Qelbree
- Qinlock
- Qsymia
- Qvar
Shouldn’t prescription drugs have nice evocative brand names like these non-prescription drugs:
- Aleve “alleviates” pain
- Sominex promotes somnolence
- Sleep-Eze makes sleep easy
- Robitussin, made by A.H. Robins, treats pertussis (cough)
- Preparation-H treats hemorrhoids
- Sudafed (a decongestant) gets its name from its active ingredient pseudoephedrine.
- Visine (think “visual”) treats redness in the eye
- Lactinex uses the enzyme lactase to neutralize lactose in cow’s milk
- Pepto-Bismol contains bismuth to treat digestive (peptic) problems
- Pepcid-AC is an Acid Controller for the stomach (peptic)
- Imodium lowers the motility (movement) of the bowels to treat diarrhea
- Tums is for the tummy
- NoDoz prevents you from dozing off when you need to be alert
- Cortaid uses hydrocortisone to aid in the treatment of skin problems
- Rogaine helps you to regrow or regain missing hair
- Gas-X kills flatulence (gas)
- Emetrol controls emesis (vomiting)
- Dulcolax is a laxative.
Final Words:
For a long time, the pharmaceutical industry has been moving toward bizarre brand names and away from brand names that suggest something about the drug’s intended use. This is not a practice that began in 2024. Do you agree that this is a weird phenomenon that says something about the dehumanizing state of our culture and society? Do you agree that this facilitates the acceptance of the human body as a machine which needs constant shoring up with pills?
Dennis Miller, R.Ph. is a retired chain store pharmacist. His book, The Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets, can be downloaded in its entirety at Amazon for 99 cents.
