The brand name under which a drug is marketed is called what?

• A. Trade name
• B. Official name
• C. Proprietary name
• D. Therapeutic classification

Answer: (A)

The name a drug company uses to market a product is the trade name. This is the branded, often trademarked label you see on bottles and in advertisements, and it can vary by manufacturer and country even though the active ingredient stays the same. The official or generic name refers to the standard chemical name used in prescribing and pharmacology and remains constant regardless of who markets it. Sometimes people use proprietary name to mean the same branded name, but in exam contexts the term trade name most clearly denotes the marketed brand. Therapeutic classification, by contrast, is about what the drug does in the body, not what it’s called. For example, acetaminophen is the generic name, while Tylenol is a trade name.