Mini-rant

[yndy]

Okay, seriously... who was it at the big drug companies who decided that the best way to market their drugs was to give them names that comprised mostly 'unusual letters'?  This is my brief shout to the marketing departments of the drug manufacturers:

Dear Marketing guys

Comments

[counterword]

I subscribe to the institute for safe medication practices (http://www.ismp.org/) newsletter, and am constantly shocked at how the drug companies contribute to serious medication errors by making too many names really similar. I can't even type about it because I'd be here for the next six years ranting. Let's just leave it at: when a patient gets the wrong drug bad things happen.

[yndy]

It's amazing isn't it?

I mean for heaven's sake - it's easier to tell laundry detergent apart! :)

[sistersolace]

i once got "clomid" and "klonopin" mixed up. i told someone that i thought another person had used klonopin to get pregnant.

... doh.

[alibee]

*poke*

I totally thought I posted a comment to this just now. I don't get you, lj!

Anyway! 'Mycins! They are in the same class, so generic-wise, that makes sense! :P

Also, hopefully no one would know if you took Valtrex before a date, and if you already had herpes, forgetting to take it once or taking it once wouldn't fix you. :P

/goes to sass somewhere else ;)

[yndy]

actually, it turns out they are and aren't the same...
See? I told you not to get me started on the 'Mycins!!
The "mycin" actually comes from the genus of bacteria from which those drugs were isolated (some modified after isolation) Streptomyces

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_all_drugs_with_the_suffix_Mycin_or_micin_aminoglycosides

I've had to learn about this lately, b/c I've had a long-known anaphylactic allergy to Erythromycin - but just last week started showing 'sensativity' to penicillin... so they put me on Clindamycin - so I went researching to find out how it is different and why before I was willing to put it in my body! lol...
the "mycin" part freaked me right out!

[alibee]

Damn you and your brains.
:P

I WAS WRONG, PEOPLE! I now know better :D

[yndy]

lol...
not my brains - my PARANOIA and obsessive thirst for information!
Seriously, I wouldn't have known either except that I had a very good reason to find out! :)

[goodjoan]

I always laugh when I see the commercial for "Boniva" because it's just too silly. It reminds me of the guy of Futurama that had "Bonitis"

I think that they think all the Xs and Zs make them sound futuristic and therefore better :) What we need is more of the old fashioned named that really tell you what they do-
Crazy-less
Pain B Gon
NewStiffy
BurpAway

[sistahmoon]

I am sure some Marketing Brand person has a koo koo reaason...wouldn't you love to be there in the name creation meetings?

I would, but then again I am a geek.