Top Mispronounced Brand-Name Drugs

Part of a pharmacist's job description is to remain professional and composed. This usually is not a problem—until someone completely butchers a drug name.

It’s true that some drug names are hard to pronounce, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to keep a straight face.

Here’s a sampling from my personal collection of brand-name drug phonetic flubs, with mispronunciations in parentheses:

1. Abilify (A-Billy-fy, Ability)

2. Butrans (But-runs)

3. Cialis (See-all-this)

4. Dilaudid (Dilude)

5. Entex LA (Entex Louisiana)

6. Glucophage (Glu-pan-age)

7. Humalog kwikpen (Humalog Kiwi-Pen)

8. Keflex (Kel-flex, Kee-flex)

9. KY Jelly (Kentucky Jelly)

10. Lyrica (Lie-reek-ka)

11. MS Contin (Mississippi Contin)

12. Norco (Noco)

13. Nulytely (Nelly-telly)

14. Plavix (Pavlix)

15. Procardia (Procardiac)

16. Qvar (Kwee-var)

17. Soma (Sonomas, Zomas)

18. Tylenol (Ty-nol)

19. Victoza (Victoria)

20. Vivelle-Dot (Vel-vee-ta, Vivelle dot com)

21. Wellbutrin SR (Wellbutrin senior, Well-but-in)

22. Xanax (X and X)

23. Zyrtec (Zortex)

I’m sure you’ve already heard a few of these mispronunciations in your day-to-day. But don’t worry, there’s more where these came from.