United States
Hong Kong- Every drug has a chemical name, a generic name and usually one or more brand names. The chemical name describes the molecule and never appears on a prescription. The generic name is the one that stays the same everywhere.
- The generic name is the United States Adopted Name and there is exactly one per active ingredient. It is not capitalised, it is not owned, and it does not change when the patent expires.
- A brand name is a trademark and there can be many. The same ingredient may be sold under different brands by different manufacturers, and the brand a patient knows may not be the one on the shelf.
- Work in generics and translate outward. A technician who thinks in generic names sees that two prescriptions are the same drug; one who thinks in brands sees two different boxes.
- The exam will hand you a brand and expect the generic, or the reverse. That is the single most reliable question shape in this domain and there is no shortcut other than learning the common pairs.
- Brand names are designed to be memorable and are therefore designed to collide. That is why so many look-alike sound-alike pairs are brands rather than generics, and it is where this subtopic touches Patient Safety.
- A combination product has one brand and several generics, and the prescription may name either. Reading the strength as a set of numbers separated by a slash is the clue that you are looking at one.
21 CFR 201.10Drug reference ch. 1 (drug nomenclature)