What is the brand name of a medication?

• A. The dosage form
• B. The name given by manufacturers
• C. The chemical name
• D. The prescribing doctor

Answer: (B)

The brand name is the marketed, proprietary name given to a drug by its manufacturer. It’s the name you’d see on the product label and in advertisements, and it’s the name clinicians might use when prescribing a specific marketed product. Brand names can vary by manufacturer and country, so the same active ingredient can have multiple brand names. For instance, acetaminophen is the generic name for the active ingredient, while Tylenol is one brand name used in many markets. The dosage form describes how the drug is prepared (tablet, liquid, capsule), not its brand name. The chemical name is the precise chemical structure name, which is usually technical and not how drugs are identified in daily use. The prescribing doctor is the clinician who may choose a drug or brand, but the term ‘brand name’ itself refers to the marketed product name assigned by the manufacturer.