Healthcare Triage: How do drugs get their names?

A number of months ago, we did an episode on how a drug comes to market with the help of out HCT intern, pharmD student Rachel Hoffman. She also helped us out with our episode on Flibanserin.

We get a lot of questions from you about drugs. What’s the difference between a generic and name brand drug? How do people feel about them? What’s the difference with biologics? With her help, we’re going to tackle those in the upcoming weeks.

Let’s start at the beginning. What’s in a name? That which we call a drug. By any other name would be so . . . effective? Brand name and generic drugs: are there any differences? Who regulates them? And what’s with all the names anyway? That’s the topic of today’s HealthCare Triage.

Here’s some further reading:

@aaronecarroll

Aaron Carroll

Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll. He is the Chief Health Officer at Indiana University. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research Mentoring at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition to contributing regularly to The New York Times and the Atlantic, he is the author of four books, most recently The Bad Food Bible.

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Aaron Carroll

Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll. He is the Chief Health Officer at Indiana University. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research Mentoring at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition to contributing regularly to The New York Times and the Atlantic, he is the author of four books, most recently The Bad Food Bible.

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