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Self-medication: brand name mix-ups

Brand name extensions known as "umbrella" brands, created to bring several drugs under one name, reduce drugs to a mass-market product and patients to consumers who are unaware of what they are taking.

The so-called "umbrella" brands, aimed at the self-medication market and pharmacists giving advice, bring together under a shared or partly shared brand name products of a different status, (drug and non-drug), which have different compositions and forms, and sometimes very different uses. For patients, this creates total confusion. Not to mention that the compositions of some products within the same "umbrella" range sometimes change, but their names don't. There is a very real danger of confusion which can have serious consequences. The only justification for these "umbrella" ranges is commercial. The names are chosen by the firms to make them easily memorable for the "consumers". The international nonproprietary name (INN, the drug's real name) is not given, thus reducing health products to the level of simple consumer products. In the name of trademark rights, drug regulatory agencies are allowing the "umbrella" ranges to proliferate, which results in confusion for patients. At a time when some drugs are about to become freely available, it is vital to give patients clear information about the composition and the status of the freely available products in pharmacies. The growth of "umbrella" brands represents an unacceptable commodification of drugs.

©Prescrire May 2008

Source: "Gammes "ombrelles" : des embrouilles aux dépens des patients" Rev Prescrire 2008; 28 (295) 345.

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