Some time ago, SC wrote about phonesthemes, a theoretical attempt to suggest that the pairing of sound and meaning is not arbitrary. Yesterday, this notion crossed paths with another SC favorite, Pfizer (no, I'm not obsessed, not me), in the form of an investment newsletter piece (no link available) on two upcoming drugs to be released by the company in the next 24 months. One, Exubera, is an inhaled form of insulin, and the other, Lyrica, is a pain reliever and anti-epilepsy drug much like the just-off-patent Neurontin.
Assuming the pronunciations follow what I expect are most English-speakers' intuitions, both drugs end in the same vowel. So does Viagra. A quick look at the Pfizer home page only finds one other drug in this paradigm, though -- Bextra -- which is another pain reliever. Bristol-Myers' product page only adds Sustiva, an anti-HIV drug. Aventis throws in a few more, including Allegra, Apidra, Arava, and Diabeta. Novartis adds Zometa; a little more exhaustive searching of their site yields: Aredia, Femara, and Rescula. There's definitely a market for drugs ending in neutral vowels, but apparently, schwas don't quite scream "drug!".
A rather different sound or sequence might, though. Have a look at this list: Keltek, Lasix, Lovenox, Rilutek, Viskaldix, Starlix, Leponex, Gleevec/Glivec (two variants of the same drug), Esidrex, Dovonex, Erbitux, Ifex, Mesnex, Plavix, Rubex, Videx, Celebrex, Relpax, and Zyrtec (also taken from the drug company links provided above). What is it about words ending in /k/ or /ks/ that says "I'll make you better"?
Not to mention Xanax and Zithromax, and I wonder whether the unstressed final syllable in "naproxen" makes it a candidate as well. (A few other examples: the SSRIs Paxil and Celexa [likewise schwa-terminated!], and the antibiotic Biaxin.)
There's a great list of pharmaceutical brand and generic names here, though it only deals with drugs that are contraindicated for long Q-T syndrome.
Posted by: Meredith L. Patterson | December 03, 2004 at 09:04 AM
I may not be an expert on either linguistics or drugs, but most prescription drug names are meant to sound vaguely Greco-Latin. Although the examples without /k/ or /ks/ endings follow a mock-classical pattern, the /k/ and /ks/-ending names reinforce that feeling: many more scientific and medical buzzwords end in those sounds. The more a drug name sounds like one of those buzzwords, the better the chance of a patient thinking "this drug is genuinely effective".
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