Marty types of names are used to describe a pharmaceutical substance and product. Each of these names has a specific meaning and is developed by detailed methods. The general health practitioner is unaware of the effort involved with generating nonproprietary, established, and proprietary names for pharmaceuticals. The methods of the International Nonproprietary Name program of the World Health Organisation, the United States Adopted Names Council, the United States Pharmacopeia, various industry naming programs, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the Food and Drug Administration are outlined in the following sections.
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