International Nonproprietary Name

Mandate

WHO has a constitutional mandate to "develop, establish and promote international standards with respect to biological, pharmaceutical and similar products".

The World Health Organization collaborates closely with INN experts and national nomenclature committees to select a single name of worldwide acceptability for each active substance that is to be marketed as a pharmaceutical. To avoid confusion, which could jeopardize the safety of patients, trade-marks should neither be derived from INNs nor contain common stems used in INNs.

WHO

An International Nonproprietary Name (INN; also known as rINN, for recommended International Nonproprietary Name or pINN for proposed International Nonproprietary Name) is the official nonproprietary or generic name given to a pharmaceutical substance, as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The plethora of named proprietary preparations containing a given substance can lead to confusion about the identity of the active ingredient. INNs facilitate communication by providing a standard name for each substance; they are designed to be unique and distinct so as to avoid confusion in prescribing. A similar role is played in chemistry by IUPAC names, though those are less suited to common usage, being typically very long and unwieldy.

WHO issues INNs in English, Latin, French, Russian, and Spanish; Arabic and Chinese versions, although not included in the original scheme, are now also being issued.^{[citation needed]}

Name stems

Drugs from the same therapeutic or chemical class are usually given names with the same stem. Stems are mostly placed word-finally, but in some cases word-initial stems are used. They are collected in a publication informally known as the Stem Book.

Examples are:

• -coxib for COX-2 inhibitors, a type of anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. celecoxib)
• -mab for monoclonal antibodies (e.g. infliximab); see Nomenclature of monoclonal antibodies
• -olol for beta blockers (e.g. atenolol)
• -oxetine for fluoxetine derivatives, a group of antidepressants
• -pril for ACE inhibitors (e.g. captopril)
• -sartan for angiotensin II receptor antagonists (e.g. losartan)
• -vastatin for HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, a group of cholesterol lowering agents (e.g. simvastatin)
• io- for iodine containing radiopharmaceuticals (e.g. iobenguane)

Linguistic discussion

The term stem is not used consistently in linguistics. It has been defined as a form to which affixes (of any type) can be attached. Under a different and apparently more common view, this is the definition of a root, while a stem consists of the root plus optional derivational affixes, meaning that it is the part of a word to which inflectional affixes are added. INN stems employ the first definition, while under the more common alternative they would be described as roots.

Name changes

A number of modifications are made to British Approved Names and other older nonproprietary names. This is to ensure similar pronunciation across major languages:

• ae and oe are replaced by e
• ch is replaced by c
• ph is replaced by f
• th is replaced by t
• y is replaced by i

Comparison of naming standards

INN:	paracetamol
British Approved Name (BAN):	paracetamol
United States Adopted Name (USAN):	acetaminophen
Other generic names:	N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, APAP, p-acetamidophenol, acetamol, ...
Proprietary names:	Tylenol, Panadol, Panamax, Perdolan, Calpol, Doliprane, Tachipirina, Ben-u-ron, Atasol, Adol, ...
IUPAC name:	N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetamide

See also

• Generic drug

External links

• "International Nonproprietary Names". World Health Organization. Retrieved 2012-04-02.