User:Joshnpowell/USAN

Fixed! --Josh Powell (talk) 14:02, 23 May 2008 (UTC) I stumbled upon a bit of an error today. The article on "United States Approved Name" begins with this sentence: "United States Adopted Names are unique nonproprietary names assigned..."

Adopted? Or approved? From what I can tell, it should be "Adopted". Approved was likely a confusion with the British Approved Name (BAN). Let me backtrack; these terms refer to drug names approved in the United States (the USAN) and Britain (BAN). Internationally approved names are International Nonproprietary Names (INNs) and are assigned by the World Health Organization. Basically, these are "generic" drug names, like fluoxetine (as opposed to brand names like Prozac.) They typically agree, except in cases like acetaminophen (USAN), which is known as paracetamol in the rest of the world (BAN and INN).

Anyway...let's move the page and fix the title.

--JoshPowell 21:03, 5 April 2006 (UTC)