Brand And Generic Drug Names

Branded or Generic: What’s in the name?
In 1953, Sterling Winthrop Co. filed the patent to FDA (Federal Food and Drugs Administration of USA) when it produced Acetaminophen. The company acquired the patent for brand name ‘Paracetamol’ and started marketing the drug in US. Since Sterling Winthrop was the first one to patent its production of Acetaminophen, no other company can produce the same formulation and sell it with the patented brand name. This is the significance of brand name. Generic names on the other hand are the shorten forms chemical names of the drugs. For instance: Acetaminophen is the generic name of Paracetamol and is the shortened form of its chemical name, N-(4-hydroxyphenyl) acetamide.