What’s in the names of drugs in rheumatology?

As soon as I see drug names, I associate something. What’s in the names of drugs in rheumatology? I’ll show you some associations. Maybe you have even more or others; feel free to post these. Drugs in rheumatology doesn’t mean that only approved drugs will appear here.

Abatacept – close to abattoir.

Arava – do you also see the colorful parrot? And Ava like Ava Gardner. Some patients call the drug avara, which is close to awaara (awaara hoon, Hindi for I am a vagabond).

Celebrex - Oh, a celebration!

Cimzia – like the Italian female name Cinzia. But as the drug was introduced to Germany we thought more of Zimtzicke (bitchy cow).

Etanercept – too bad, eta are the outcasts in feudal Japanese society. Eta (穢多) means abundance of filth.

Guselkumab – looks a bit gruselig (creepy, gruesome). Or even like Gruselkabinett (chamber of horrors).

Humira – human, but the second half ira is Latin for wrath.

Lantarel – nobody could have expected, that later there’ll be a Lana del Rey. On the other hand lanta is Finnish for manure. Oops!

Leflunomide – Le flu comes to my mind, but in French it’s la gripe for flu.

Methotrexate – luckily people abbreviated methotrexate to MTX and not to Meth.

Orencia – I have called it Horrencia because of the high price and the German word horrend (horrendous). There also lies horror in the word.

Remicade – there is a tie or draw in the word because of remis.

RoActemra – in Germany tocilizumab is marketed as RoActemra and not as Actemra. Ro(che) acts on RA (rheumatoid arthritis). Good choice, but a but – ro in German means raw (roh).

Simponi – looks like symphony. The Supremes sang: “… I hear a symphony”. And that’s what you get, when you search on Twitter for instance, Indonesian or Malayan kids talking about simponi (songs, symphony). There’s even an Indonesian Pop band with the name Simponi.

… might be continued.