Nov 18
What’s In a Drug’s Name?
I just saw a commercial for the sleep aid Ambien, and a thought occurred to me: it’s a fairly clever title if you think about it.
The first syllable contains the abbreviation for morning, and the second and third syllables are a word that means “good” in French and Spanish. So roughly translated into English (if you’re a little liberal with the use of an adverb in place of an adjective), Ambien could be mean “good morning.”
Somebody probably got paid the big bucks for that.
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November 18th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
They have to be clever… the FDA won’t approve the name if it’s too direct. The original trade name of topical monoxidil is “Regaine,” but the FDA thought that sounded too much like a guarantee of hair growth. So they were forced to change the name to Rogaine in the U.S. (It’s still “Regaine” overseas.)
November 18th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Ahhhhh I wondered how they picked names for these drugs. Good grief some of them just befuddle me. YOu know a Texas accent is never good on weird names, lol. De
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
That’s an interesting observation. I have to wonder, though, if you’ve been having trouble sleeping and you try Ambien (I’d recommend the “CR” version) wouldn’t the last thing you’d be looking forward to is morning, be it good or bad?
On a related note, I will respect the fact that this is a family-friendly blog and refrain from mentioning the actual technical name for Viagra. Plus, it’s an old joke, so everyone’s heard it by now, I’m sure.