The Brazilian National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance
("ANVISA") has released new rules regarding
pharmaceutical names/trademarks.
According to the new rules, pharmaceutical companies will be
allowed to create a family of drugs with a common name (the
"base name"). To be included in the family, all drugs
must have at least one common pharmaceutical raw material. Each
drug in the family will carry the base name and a distinctive name,
which must be a non-exclusive name.
A previous rule, which was revoked, established that companies
could use names that were similar to other registered names if they
had at least 3 different letters. The new rules will not affect,
automatically, drug names previously registered with the ANVISA.
Nevertheless, the ANVISA may order a name change if it determines
after an administrative proceeding that (i) an irregularity has
occurred when the name was first registered or (ii) the name could
cause confusion among consumers.
