Chemical name

Alpha – aminobenzyl P

Brand names

Amcill capsules

Omnipen

Penbritin

Polycillin

Principen / N

Generic Name

(official name)

Ampicillin

Standards

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the legal responsibility for deciding whether a drug may be distributed and sold, there are definite standards for drugs set by an independent committee of physicians, pharmacologists, pharmacists and manufacturers. This committee is called the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Two important standards of the USP are that a drug must be clinically useful (useful for patients) and available in pure form (made by good manufacturing methods). If a drug has USP after its name, it has met with the standards of the Pharmacopeia. A list of drugs is published by the USP every 5 years but not all the drugs are listed in it. The National Formulary (NF) is a larger list of drugs which meets purity standards. The letters USP and NF after a drug indicate that the manufacturer claims his product conforms to USP or NF standards. It is up to the FDA to inspect and enforce the claims of drug manufacturers.

References

Libraries and hospitals have two large reference listings of drugs which give important information about drugs. The most complete and up-to-date is the Hospital Formulary, published by the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists. This listing gives information about the characteristics of drugs and their clinical usage (application to patient care).

The Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) is published by a private firm. Manufacturers pay to have their products listed there. The PDR is a useful reference with several different indexes to identify drugs (generic and chemical names index, product identification index, manufacturers’ index, drug classification index and full description about recommended dosages and administration for each drug).

4. Закончите предложения, заменив русские слова и словосочетания в скобках их

английскими эквивалентами:

1. The generic name is (общественная собственность) and any manufacture may use it.

2. The name is often long and (сложный).

3. The brand name or trade name is (частная собственность) of the individual drug

manufacturer and no (конкурент) may use it.

4. It is common practice (писать с прописной буквы) the first letter of a brand name.

5. (Управление по контролю за продуктами и лекарствами) has (юридическая

ответственность за) deciding whether a drug may be distributed and sold.

6. Brand names often have (надпись) after or before the name.