Creating Name
ADVERTISING AGE
APRIL, 2000
Rx mix-up effects are
costly, April 2000
By Eugenia C. Daniels
The cost of prescription nomenclature errors from similar-sounding or spelled
pharmaceutical brand names is much higher that the $1.9 billion in ad revenue
marketers spent hawking prescription brand name drugs in 1999, according to an
Institute of Medicine study.
Medical errors, including those caused by prescription mix-ups, add up to $8.8 billion annually, the study estimates, and, even if not fatal, create medical complications for 100,000 Americans a year.
Jerry Phillips, director of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration' s Office of Postmarketing Drug Risk Assessment, has tightened restrictions in his unit to help cut these costs.
NAMES SCRUTINIZED
We now look more closely during the review of the (pharmaceutical brand name) application process, says Mr. Phillips, adding this helps prevent pharmaceutical name brands like Celexa, Cerebyx and Celebrex from simultaneously reaching the consumer market. Celexa is an antidepressant, Cerebyx is an antiseizure drug and Celebrex is an anti-inflammatory drug.
Pharmaceutical marketers do more pharmaceutical name brand testing in the premarketing stage today than they did two years ago, says Robert Day, managing director of Brand Institute's Chicago office, which creates pharmaceutical names and healthcare brands for several companies.
Testing includes having doctors write sample prescriptions, pharmacists reading them and consumers responding to questionnaires about the sound of the pharmaceutical brand name.
LEGALITIES INVOLVED
However, the legal department is key to the pharmaceutical brand name selection, says Greg T. Fulton, head of marketing/branded products of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
After Mr. Fulton reviews hundreds of pharmaceutical brand name submissions from staff and consulting companies, he says he gives the best 10 to 20 potential proprietary pharmaceutical names for a product to the legal department, which conducts a search on similarly spelled potential brand names in addition to trademark patents. If company attorneys approve the names for branding the drug, one is chosen and premarket tests are conducted with doctors, pharmacists and consumers.
The legal department conducts phonetic searches, says Pamela May, senior trademark attorney for SmithKline Beecham. She says if the industry had had this system in place a few years ago, a search for Parke-Davis. Celexa would have found pharmaceutical brand names that began not only with " cel" but also " sel".
Pharmaceutical brand names walk fine line
By Eugenia C. Daniels
Branding a prescription drug is a lengthy, expensive process.
Brand Institute President-CEO James L. Dettore branded 300 DTC products in 1999, including Glaxo Welcome's Relenza. A multipage medical description of the flu drug given to him by the marketer, was boiled down to a few words: a treatment for influenza. Those four words had to be whittled to one.
The word Relenza, which speaks to reliability while subtly hinting at influenza, made the cut for one reason, says Mr. Dettore. It was marketable.
Creating Name
