General Principles for Guidance in Devising International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances - Directives générales pour la formation de dénominations communes internationales applicables aux substances pharmaceutiques - Principios generales de orientación para formar denominaciones comunes internacionales para sustancias farmacéuticas

* In its twentieth report (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 581, 1975), the WHO Expert Committee on Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances reviewed the general principles for devising, and the procedures for selecting, international nonproprietary names (INN) in the light of developments in pharmaceutical compounds in recent years. The most significant change has been the extension to the naming of synthetic chemical substances of the practice previously used for substances originating in or derived from natural products. This practice involves employing a characteristic "stem" indicative of a common property of the members of a group. The reasons for, and the implications of, the change are fully discussed.