27 August 2015 - The FDA has issued draft guidance on the non-proprietary naming of biological products.

For originator biological products, FDA intends to use a core name that is the name adopted by the USAN Council for the drug substance when available. If the biological product is a related biosimilar, or interchangeable product, the core name will be the name of the drug substance contained in the relevant previously licensed product. A designated suffix composed of four lower case letters will be added to the core name of each product and will be attached with a hyphen.

Importantly, use of a shared core name will indicate a relationship among products. The placement of the identifier as a suffix, rather than a prefix, should result in the biological products with the same core name being grouped together in electronic databases to help health care providers identify these products.

For more details, go to: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM459987.pdf?source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery