Changing Australian medicine names

Abstract

The Therapeutic Goods Administration is changing the names of approximately 200 medicines. The aim is to harmonise Australian medicine names with international names to reduce confusion and inconsistency, which ultimately improves medication safety and the quality use of medicines. Most of the changes will have a four-year transitional arrangement. However, a short list of medicines has seven years to transition, with a requirement for dual labelling during this period. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are special cases and will always be known as ‘adrenaline (epinephrine)' and ʼnoradrenaline (norepinephrine)'. Doctors, pharmacists and other health professionals, consumers, manufacturers, sponsors and companies providing services and programs to support the prescribing and administration of medicines, need to be aware of these changes.