Drug's Generic Code

Brand Names
Brand names or trade names or proprietary names are the name patented by the manufacturer of the drug for marketing purposes. Brand name is assigned after the drug is tested by the FDA and is a registered trademark. Only the manufacturing company, which holds the copyrights, can use the brand name to market the drug. Once the patent expires (after 20 years of its grant) the company loses its exclusive rights to use the name. Off-patented drugs can be manufactured and marketed by other companies with the same brand name. These off-patented versions of the drugs are called generic drugs.

Code Number
A unique code number is also assigned to the drug for identification and easy referencing.
Code number consists of the initials of the first manufacturer of the drug and the laboratory’s serial number. For example: RU 486, where RU is for Roussel Uclaf ( a French manufacturing company) and 486 is the drug’s laboratory serial number.