A view to brevity: Brand Institute's clear-eyed approach to naming AbbVie's new eyesight drug Vuity

Drug names are funny things: Designed for maximum impact and exposure to the market, making them unforgettable and, just as importantly, sensible for regulators, can often feel like a collection of high-scoring Scrabble letters simply joined together.

But for one of the newest names on the block, simplicity reigns. With its latest FDA approval, a new eye drop for those with blurry near vision, AbbVie and Allergan turned, like so many before it, to the Brand Institute for a new product name.

For this drug, the company went with brevity and tonality ahead of maximizing little-used letters, such as we have seen in recent years with Zokinvy, Uplizna, Byfavo and Zepzelca, to name but a few.

In the end, the companies came up with Vuity (think view and clarity). “You can see quite clearly in the name that ‘view’ is the central connection; we’re getting good feedback on its ease of pronunciation and its link to the therapy category,” explained Scott Piergrossi​, president of creative at the Brand Institute.

Last month, the FDA greenlighted AbbVie’s Vuity for presbyopia, or age-related blurry near vision, with the drug landing in pharmacies earlier this month.

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Vuity is one of the more “clean” names to come through the complicated drug naming process, which has the added pressure of regulatory acceptance. The FDA does a name safety review but also undertakes a promotional assessment, looking at claims to efficacy and safety that might be embedded in the name itself. Anything that would be considered exaggerated or overly promotional is out.

Safety is also key—the FDA doesn’t want names too similar to others on the market and risk a prescription mix-up. The agency has become quite conservative as a result, Piergrossi said. Hence the standout, novel names that hit the market. They have to be noticeably different from the thousands of other drugs on the market, while also serving what the company wants: a strong name that can help boost prescriptions.

Vuity came through on that score and more, Piergrossi said. “The tonality is important here too,” he said. “It denotes some optimism; a little bit of an upbeat nature to the name, and distinctive is what it aims to be.”