International Nonproprietary Names Modified

Special situations mentioned above comprise creation of names of

individual members belonging to a group of closely related substances. When

the INN Programme was initiated, it was decided that in such situations, in

order to limit the number of published INNs, an INN should be selected for

one member of such a group only. This approach, which concerns especially

substance sets formed by salts or esters of the same active moiety was

validated in the 20th report of the WHO Expert Committee on Nonproprietary

Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (Technical Report Series No. 581). It

has been left for the users of INNs (pharmacopoeia commissions, regulatory

bodies, pharmaceutical manufacturers) to create the actual name of any

individual substance that turns up in practical use, this to be done in

conformity with the usual practice of naming chemical compounds. INNs

created in this manner are referred to as INNMs (International Nonproprietary

Names Modified).