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International Nonproprietary Name



An International Nonproprietary Name (INN; also known as rINN, for recommended International Nonproprietary Name) is the official non-proprietary or generic name given to a pharmaceutical substance, as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The plethora of named proprietary preparations containing a given substance can lead to confusion about the identity of the active ingredient. INNs facilitate communication by providing a standard name for each substance. A similar role is played in chemistry by IUPAC names; however, these are less suited to common usage, being typically very long and unwieldy. WHO issues INN names in English, Latin, French, Russian, and Spanish; Arabic and Chinese versions, although not included in the original scheme, are now also being issued.

Example

INN: Paracetamol
British Approved Name (BAN): Paracetamol
United States Adopted Name (USAN): Acetaminophen
Other generic names: N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, APAP, p-Acetamidophenol, Acetamol, ...
Proprietary names: Tylenol®, Panadol®, Panamax®, Perdolan®, Calpol®, Doliprane®, Tachipirina®, ben-u-ron®,Atasol®, and others
IUPAC name: N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-acetamide

Proprietary Names: Crocin

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "International_Nonproprietary_Name". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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