Drug Name Updates

With different countries adopting different name standards for the same medicinal molecule, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has alerted healthcare professionals that some drug names in Australia are obsolete.  The TGA has said it intends to update some medicine ingredient names used in Australia to align with names used internationally.  Similar harmonisation activities have previously occurred in the UK (2003) and NZ (2008). 

Using a four-year transition period for these changes, from Apr 2016 to Apr 2020, the TGA says the changes will be more easily adopted by the medical community and errorsavoided, with both names required to be used on labelling for a further three years to 2023 - eg., ‘lidocaine (lignocaine)’.

The TGA has posted a list of affected medicines. Click here to view the list.

Source: Pharmacydaily.com.au, Tuesday 9 February 2016