(a) Section 508 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (added by the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments of 1962; Pub. L. 87-781) authorizes the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to designate an official name for any drug if he determines that such action is necessary or desirable in the interest of usefulness and simplicity. Section 502(e) of the act (as amended by said Drug Amendments) prescribes that the labeling of a drug must bear its established name, if there is one, to the exclusion of any other nonproprietary name (except the applicable systematic chemical name or the chemical formula) and, if the drug is fabricated from two or more ingredients, the established name of each active ingredient.
(b) The term
(c) The Food and Drug Administration recognizes the skill and experience of the U.S. Adopted Names Council (USAN) in deriving names for drugs. The U.S. Adopted Names Council is a private organization sponsored by the American Medical Association, the United States Pharmacopeia, and the American Pharmaceutical Association, and has been engaged in the assignment of names to drugs since January 1964. The Council negotiates with manufacturing firms in the selection of nonproprietary names for drugs.
(d) The Food and Drug Administration cooperates with and is represented on the USAN Council. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration agrees with “Guiding Principles for Coining U.S. Adopted Names for Drugs,” published in
(e) The Food and Drug Administration will not routinely designate official names under section 508 of the act. As a result, the established name under section 502(e) of the act will ordinarily be either the compendial name of the drug or, if there is no compendial name, the common and usual name of the drug. Interested persons, in the absence of the designation by the food and Drug Administration of an official name, may rely on as the established name for any drug the current compendial name or the USAN adopted name listed in
(1) The USAN or other official or common or usual name is unduly complex or is not useful for any other reason;
(2) Two or more official names have been applied to a single drug, or to two or more drugs that are identical in chemical structure and pharmacological action and that are substantially identical in strength, quality, and purity; or
(3) No USAN or other official or common or usual name has been applied to a medically useful drug. Any official name published under section 508 of the act will be the established name of the drug.
(f) A cumulative list of U.S. adopted names selected and released since June 15, 1961, is published yearly by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc., in