Saturday, January 13, 2007

Zyprexa, another Drug in danger

According to N.Y. Time on Dec 17, 2006 the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa has some serious side-effects. Zyprexa joins Ambien and Vioxx as drugs recently in the public view due to some dangerous side-effects.
Not being a user of these drugs, what strikes me are the exceptionally catchy names of these drugs. There is a whole industry which has to do with naming new products, including drugs, cars, companies, and other things. Talk about a dream job for a word buff, with the possible ego-boosting side-effect of being a way to leave a mark on the world.
Recently I found the best reading material in my Doctor's office was a trade journal listing the names of drugs.
Some of my favorite names are (old and new):

Companies:
Xerox
Coca-cola
Panasonic
Pepsi
Zenith
Google
Utz

Drugs:
Novocain
Zoloft
Xalan
Effexor



How does one train for a job like this?
I leave for future discussion the catchy name of cars (like the Volkswagen Phaeton), musical groups (like Hope Blister or Smoosh) and their compositions (like I, Megaphone by Imogen Heap, musical instruments (like zither) places (like Tin-pan Alley), diseases (like Myocardial Infarction or Post Nasal Drip), jobs (like Chancellor of the Exchequer or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or Grand Poobah) etc.