Nomenclature of medicinal preparations

While studying this topic, you will:

• get information about the nomenclature of medicinal preparations;
• get acquainted with the ways of composition, structure of trivial names of medicinal preparations;
• learn how to make word-formation analysis of Latin names of medicinal preparations.

The lesson is divided into several sections:

• the main principles of pharmacy;
• names of medicinal preparations;
• clinical terminology.

Nomenclature (lat. nomenclatura — a list of names) is a list of names, terms, categories, which are used in any branch of science, technology, etc.

Respectively, the nomenclature of medicines is a list of all applied medicinal preparations (MP). Pharmaceutical terminology uses generally Greek and Latin words or their parts from which new terms and names of MP are formed artificially. The names of an MP is formed, as a rule, by means of Latin and Greek word elements (always in a unique meaning!).

Nowadays two types of names are applied for the designation of medicines:

1. An international nonproprietary name (INN) is an official generic and non-proprietary name given to a pharmaceutical drug or an active ingredient. INNs are intended to make communication more precise by providing a unique standard name for each active ingredient, to avoid prescribing errors. The INN system has been coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1953.

Having unambiguous standard names for each drug (standardization of drug nomenclature) is important because a drug may be sold by many different brand names, or a branded medication may contain more than one drug. For example, the branded medications Celexa, Celapram and Citrol all contain the same active ingredient: citalopram; and the antibiotic widely known by the brand name Bactrim contains two active ingredients: trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole. This combination of two antibiotic agents in one tablet has been available as a generic for decades, but the brand names Bactrim and Septra are still in common use.

Each drug’s INN is unique but may contain a word stem that is shared with other drugs of the same class; for example, the beta blocker drugs propranolol and atenolol share the -olol suffix, and the benzodiazepine drugs lorazepam and diazepam share the -azepam suffix.

The WHO issues INNs in English, Latin, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese, and a drug’s INNs are often cognate across most or all of the languages, with minor spelling or pronunciation differences, for example: paracetamol (en) paracetamolum (la), paracétamol (fr) and парацетамол (ru). An established INN is known as a recommended INN (rINN), while a name that is still being considered is called a proposed INN (pINN).

2. Trade or brand names which are commercial property of the pharmaceutical firm making medicine, these names are patented.

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller’s good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified, to the benefit of the brand’s customers, its owners and shareholders. Brand names are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.

One and the same medicine produced by various firms can have a set of trade names. For example, Fluconazole is sold under the names Diflucan, Mycosyst, Medoflucon, Forcan, etc. Some medicines have more than 100 trade names (for example, vitamin B12).

The principles of pharmaceutical terms formation

1. The majority of Latin names of medicines are nouns of the second declension, of a neutral gender with the ending -um: Ampicillinum. The form of the genitive case of such nouns ends in -i: Ampicillini. The accent in such terms is always put on a penultimate syllable. The English and the Russian names of these medicines are transliterated Latin names without the termination -um: Ampicillinum: Ampicillin — ампициллин.
2. Some Latin names of medicines are of the second declension, neutral gender ending in -ium. They correspond to the Russian names ending in -ий, sodium — Natrium — натри. The form of the genitive case of such nouns ends in -ii: Chloroformii (the first i — a final vowel of a stem). The accent in such terms is always put on the third-to-last syllable.
3. A small group of names of imported medicines ends in -a: for example, Levodopa, Methyldopa, they are declined according to the rules of the 1^st declension.

3.1. Russian names of medicinal preparations ending in -за are translated into Latin as the nouns of the neutral gender: глюкоза — Glucosum (glucose), лидаза — Lydasum (lydase) (but: exceptions — Asperasa, Gelatosa).

4. Trade names of medicines must be written the same way they are patented, often without the Latin endings. However, in prescriptions their conditional latinisation takes place — in the form of the genitive case they are written with the ending -i: Magurol — Maguroli, Taktivine — Taktivini.
5. In names of medicinal preparations, the dosage form is written down in the first place: solutĭo, unguentum, tinctura, etc. On the second place the name of medicine in the genitive case starting with a capital letter is written: Solutĭo Lidocaini — solution of Lidocain — раствор лидокаина, Unguentum Tetracyclini — Tetracyclin ointment — мазь тетрациклиновая (Latin nouns — names of medicinal substances in the genitive case can be translated into Russian as adjectives).
6. Adjectives as a part of pharmaceutical terms are written at the end of the term: Solutĭo Hexoestroli oleosa — oil solution of Hexoestrol (however, after such dosage forms as membranulae — films, mixture — mixture, spongia — a sponge, suppositorium — a suppository, adjectives are written directly after the name of dosage forms, for example: Suppositorium rectale "Anusolum".
7. In the names of a tincture, infusions, extracts and decoctions between the names of a dosage form and a name of the plant, parts of a plant (leaf, root, herb, etc.) are mentioned in the genitive case: Infūsum foliōrum Digitālis — infusion of foxglove leaves (Latin nouns — the names of medicinal plants in the Genitive case can be translated into Russian as adjectives — Oleum Eucalypti — eucalyptus oil — масло эвкалиптовое).
8. Commercial names are often given to the medicines with a complex structure in order not to list the components. In case of their prescription, a doctor writes down the dosage form, and then the commercial name in the Nominative case (in converted commas): Suppositorĭa "Anaesthesulum" — Anestezol suppositories.