Official generic name for a pharmaceutical drug or active ingredient
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "International nonproprietary name" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(March 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Mandate
The World Health Organization has a constitutional mandate to "develop, establish and promote international standards with respect to biological, pharmaceutical and similar products".
The World Health Organization collaborates closely with INN experts and national nomenclature committees to select a single name of worldwide acceptability for each active substance that is to be marketed as a pharmaceutical. To avoid confusion, which could jeopardize the safety of patients, trade-marks should neither be derived from INNs nor contain common stems used in INNs.
WHO[1]
An international nonproprietary name (INN) is an official generic and nonproprietary name given to a pharmaceutical drug or an active ingredient.[2] INNs are intended to make communication more precise by providing a unique standard name for each active ingredient, to avoid prescribing errors.[1] The INN system has been coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1953.[3]
Having unambiguous standard names for each drug (standardization of drug nomenclature) is important because a drug may be sold by many different brand names, or a branded medication may contain more than one drug. For example, the branded medications Celexa, Celapram and Citrol all contain the same active ingredient: citalopram; and the antibiotic widely known by the brand name Bactrim contains two active ingredients: trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole. This combination of two antibiotic agents in one tablet has been available as a generic for decades, but the brand names Bactrim and Septra are still in common use.
Each drug's INN is unique but may contain a word stem that is shared with other drugs of the same class; for example, the beta blocker drugs propranolol and atenolol share the -olol suffix, and the benzodiazepine drugs lorazepam and diazepam share the -azepam suffix.
The WHO issues INNs in English, Latin, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese, and a drug's INNs are often cognate across most or all of the languages, with minor spelling or pronunciation differences, for example: paracetamol (en) paracetamolum (la), paracétamol (fr) and парацетамол (ru). An established INN is known as a recommended INN (rINN), while a name that is still being considered is called a proposed INN (pINN).[3]
^ ab"International Nonproprietary Names". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
^World Health Organization, Guidance on INN, archived from the original on August 9, 2014, retrieved October 5, 2020.
^ abSerafini M, Cargnin S, Massarotti A, Tron GC, Pirali T, Genazzani AA (April 2021). "What's in a Name? Drug Nomenclature and Medicinal Chemistry Trends using INN Publications". Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 64 (8): 4410–4429. doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00181. PMC 8154580. PMID 33847110.
and 28 Related for: International nonproprietary name information
common stems used in INNs. WHO An internationalnonproprietaryname (INN) is an official generic and nonproprietaryname given to a pharmaceutical drug or...
United States Adopted Name (USAN) is a unique nonproprietaryname assigned to a medication marketed in the United States. Each name is assigned by the USAN...
ensure naming consistency worldwide (an effort leading to the InternationalNonproprietaryName system). There is also a British Approved Name (Modified)...
The Brazilian NonproprietaryName or DCB, from the Portuguese Denominação Comum Brasileira is the official Portuguese nomenclature for drugs or active...
mesylate is present as the CH3SO−3 anion. When modifying the internationalnonproprietaryname of a pharmaceutical substance containing the group or anion...
Sermorelin acetate (INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietaryName; brand names Geref, Gerel), also known as GHRH (1-29), is a peptide analogue of growth...
Samidorphan (INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietaryName, USANTooltip United States Adopted Name) (developmental code names ALKS-33, RDC-0313) is an opioid...
counterpart, the product's Internationalnonproprietaryname (INN) is interferon alfa (the spelling of 'alfa' with 'f' reflects INN naming conventions). Interferon...
Ursodoxicoltaurine is the internationalnonproprietaryname (INN) for the pharmaceutical form of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA). It is also known as...
Fadrozole (INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietaryName), sold under the brand name Afema (by Novartis), is a selective, nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor...
the efficacy of bedinvetmab (Librela). Bedinvetmab is the internationalnonproprietaryname. "LIBRELA Product information". Health Canada. "Health product...
In late 2016, the TGA changed several drug names to the corresponding internationalnonproprietaryname (INN), or, in cases where an INN was not available...
treatment of H. pylori infection in adults. Vonoprazan is the internationalnonproprietaryname (INN). "Voquezna- vonoprazan fumarate tablet". DailyMed. 8...
epcoritamab in both February and June 2022. Epcoritamab is the internationalnonproprietaryname. "Epkinly Product information". Health Canada. 22 October...
Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil and Macau. Mavacamten is the internationalnonproprietaryname (INN). "Camzyos". Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)....
compound sold as a coccidiostat used in poultry. It has many InternationalNonproprietaryNames.[clarification needed] The drug is a thiamine analogue and...
(INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietaryName, USANTooltip United States Adopted Name), formerly known as raxatrigine (INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietary Name...
compounds. The name picaridin was proposed as an InternationalNonproprietaryName (INN) to the World Health Organization (WHO), but the official name that has...
States Pharmacopeia; there is no INNTooltip InternationalNonproprietaryName for this form. The generic name of the unesterified form of the drug is drostanolone...
Generic name (pharmaceuticals), a nonproprietaryname used as an identifier for pharmaceuticals. Naming systems include: InternationalNonproprietaryName (INN)...
arterial hypertension (PAH, WHO Group 1). Sotatercept is the internationalnonproprietaryname. It was initially developed to increase bone density but during...
the list as follows: INN = InternationalNonproprietaryName BAN = British Approved Name USAN = United States Adopted Name Two-letter codes for countries...
the name of the manufacturer and a generic non-proprietary name such as the United States Adopted Name (USAN) or InternationalNonproprietaryName (INN)...