Brand Institute Divisional President Discusses the Need for Novel Naming Strategies in Pharmaceutical Branding

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Apr 11, 2023, 10:00 ET

MIAMI, April 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Institute contributes to most of the new pharmaceutical brand name approvals granted every year, making the company well positioned to identify and influence naming trends in the industry. Yet even as the number of registered trademarks and approved brand names increases, so too does the challenge for drug manufacturers seeking names that are readily distinguishable from all the others.

Mark Ghobry, Brand Institute's President of Western Europe & Emerging Markets, who works out of the company's London office, recently discussed ways to innovate in an increasingly crowded pharmacopoeia. "Creating a brand name that doesn't look or sound like any one of hundreds of thousands of other brand names is easier said than done, but we employ orthographic strategies to achieve that for our clients," he said. Examples include anything from doubling consonants or vowels to phonetic letter swaps (e.g., replacing K with Q or S with Z). "They all tend to achieve the same or a similar phonetic result—but in a more visually distinctive way."

And having worked as a pharmacist before joining Brand Institute, Mr. Ghobry understands how effective these naming strategies can be. "When a prescription is scribbled at speed, the downstroke of a 'y' or the cross-stroke of a 't' can help distinguish the visual impression of the drug name and prevent misinterpretation." That's why, Mark says, a "multi-stroke" approach, such as the deliberate use of upstroke, downstroke, and cross-stroke letters (e.g., b, y, t) in a brand name, can help lead to regulatory approval. "Our clients are surprised by the level of detail we apply, but in the end, pharmaceutical naming is both an art and a science."

About Brand Institute and our wholly owned regulatory subsidiary, Drug Safety Institute

Brand Institute is the global leader in pharmaceutical and healthcare-related name development, with a portfolio of over 4,000 marketed healthcare brand names, 1,300 USAN/INN nonproprietary names for 1,200 clients. The company partners on over 75% of pharmaceutical brand and nonproprietary name approvals globally every year with healthcare manufacturers. Drug Safety Institute is composed of former naming regulatory officials from global government health agencies, including Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), Health Canada (HC), American Medical Association (AMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

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SOURCE Brand Institute, Inc.