IP for Business: The Fall and Rise of Pharma Brand Names

• Author: R. John Fidelino

Stand out - but innocuously! This would seem to be the goal, judging by pharma brand names launched in the recent past. A paradox, for sure. But it makes sense if you consider the following: don't stand out and you get lost in the crowd; stand out too much and your flashiness may undermine your credibility. Pharma marketers are not only concerned about over-promising and under-delivering to physician and patient audiences, they are also fearful of rejections by regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). Add to this the ongoing media and government blitz against the pharma industry, and it is no wonder a new conservatism in pharma branding is prevailing. Thus, despite all the talk of differentiation, it seems the ultimate driver in brand name development is credibility.

The past, in brief

In the years before Viagra, there was a preponderance of traditional, "old school" pharma names. These names all shared a similar construction - consonant-vowel-consonant - and reeked of chemistry, with their -ol, -en, -in, or -il suffixes (e.g. Anafranil, Ritalin). Patients were not expected to discuss their prescriptions with their doctors, and so it was fine that names were complex and unattractive. But with the success of brands like Prozac and Viagra, suddenly an approachable and attractive name was all the rage. Brand names now reached beyond the science and grabbed onto aspiration: what does the consumer want in life? Let's sum it up in a brand name for a pill! Take Celebrex, Seasonale, Zestril. Such names made pharma a household topic.

Once the post-Viagra maelstrom of aggressively aspirational names subsided, a gentler style emerged. These names equally evoked a good life, but were mellifluous, endearing, non-offensive... and banal. In the quest to stay current but safe, the industry created a new convention: the sounds-like-a-woman's-shoe-from-Europe name. A wave of names emerged that tended to be overly feminine, in look and feel, comprising constructs of open vowels and fluid consonants. These names were clever and interesting for a while, but the sheer number of them robbed them of their creative significance.

A new era

Some recent trends, however, have thrown...