The trade name of a drug registered by the pharmaceutical company which has developed and patented it. This protects the name, ingredients and manufacturing technique for a set period of time, and helps the company to recoup the often costly research and development needed to produce and test the drug. Doctors may prescribe a drug by its trade name or by its o?cial, approved name, although the NHS encourages the latter. (See GENERIC DRUG; PATENT.)
(in pharmacy) the trade name of a drug: the name assigned to it by the firm that manufactured it. For example, Taxotere and Herceptin are the proprietary names of docetaxel and trastuzumab, respectively.
The o?cially approved name for a medicinal substance used in the UK. A 1992 European Union directive required the use of a Recommended International Non-proprietary Name (rINN) for these substances. Usually the BAN and rINN were identical; where there was a difference, the rINN nomenclature is now used. An exception is adrenaline, which remains the o?cial name in Europe with the rINN – epinephrine – being a synonym.... british approved names (ban)