The Committee was informed of the current activities of the programme on International Nonproprietary Names (INNs) for pharmaceutical substances. Since it last met 230 new names have been published as proposed INNs, and 270 names have reached recommended INN status. A new edition of the cumulative list of INNs was published at the end of 1996 (15), and guidelines on the use and application of INNs are nearing completion. The Committee was also pleased to note that, following publication in the thirty-fourth report (14) of guidelines for the graphic representation of chemical formulae, a further document giving more detailed advice on drawing structures had been prepared and was available on request (16). This document applied to chemical entities included in both INN publications and The international pharmacopoeia.