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Naming a Pharmaceutical Company – Case Study

Create a brand name for a new corporate entity that resulted from the merger of two established pharmaceutical software companies, Tripos and Pharsight, which will then become product brands under the new corporate umbrella. The tone of the identity should be professional and intelligent.

Following is competitive name mapping for the pharmaceutical software category in 2009.

Competitive Name Mapping

Competitive Name Mapping Pharmaceutical

Following is our analysis of the drug development software category brand names.

  • The majority of drug development software brand names are literal or synthesized, targeting pharmaceutical companies that often use synthesized names for new products
  • Tripos and Pharsight brand names are not related or leverage-able as a brand system
  • The strongest brand names in the drug development software category are Spotfire for its interest and differentiation, and SAS Institute for its success. The descriptor “institute” implies a scientific underpinning that reinforces a positive brand position
  • Opportunity for brand differentiation in this category via metaphorical names is more pronounced than most
  • A descriptor or tagline should be considered concurrently with name for positioning; a placeholder descriptor (Research Systems) will be use to demonstrate context

Over 150 brand name candidates were generated. Following are select brand name candidates that ranked highest by 8 criteria.

Name Scoring and Ranking

Domain name and trademark screening was undertaken for the top 5 ranked candidates, along with the client’s preferred name candidate, Certara.

Trademark and Domain Screening

Trademark and Domain Screening Pharmaceutical

Despite a lower ranking, the client selected Certara as it’s new corporate brand name after both legal trademark review, and domain name procurement. Certainly, a major advantage of a synthesized or invented name is the availability of the trademark, domain, and often the ability to not have problematic translations across the world. Following is the announcement copy from their website:

Certara® was formed through the integration of Tripos®, Pharsight®, Simcyp®, and Synchrogenix®, creating a company that offers a broad spectrum of scientific consulting services and software products from early drug discovery through clinical drug development, with special focus on model based approaches to drug development.