International Non-proprietary Name


When I was at school I was told (wrongly) that the generic names for
medicines (eg diazepam for Valium®, which also has a long chemical
name) were generated by computer. Obviously not so: generic INNs
ending in -olol are beta-blockers, for example.

What I wantis a "lo ok-up" source which would 'parse' [not the right
word] drugs like zopiclone, clopidogrel, simvastatin (as opposed to
other statins). Some, like fluoxetine I know are derived from the
elements or molecules (fl=fluorine, ox=oxygen). But paroxetine ?? 
-etine?  -etone?

It's clearly not the case that there will be a simple answer for all drugs.

An online source, hopefully, otherwise a reference book with its ISBN
number if possible.

I am aware that there other protocols: Example
INN: 	paracetomol
British Approved Name (BAN): 	paracetamol
United States Approved Name (USAN): 	acetaminophen
Other generic names: 	N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, APAP, p-Acetamidophenol,
Acetamol, ...
Proprietary names: 	Tylenol®, Panadol®, Panamax®, Calpol®, Doliprane®,
Tachipirina®, ben-u-ron®,...
IUPAC name: 	N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-acetamide

I am principally interested in the make-up of the British (BAN) nomenclature.

See <http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=570966> for a
related question.

In the US, nonproprietary names are assigned by the United States
Adopted Names (USAN) Council
(<http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2956.html>).  See
<http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4782.html> for their list of
approved "stems" for nonproprietary names.

There are several databases of drug names.  The ACS Chemical Abstracts
Service has a summary of these at
<http://www.cas.org/PHARM/page4.html>.

The World Health Organization also has a set of standards for
assigning International Nonproprietary Names.  See
<http://www.who.int/medicines/services/inn/innquidance/en/>.  A
document with their list of recommended stems is at
<http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/1997/WHO_PHARM_S_NOM_1570.pdf>

The US Phararmacopeia has an on-line search of it's publications at
<http://store.usp.org/OA_HTML/usp_ibeCSrdSrchAdvForm.jsp?a=b&minisite=10020>,
but I think only the USAN names are indexed (even though the entries
have the BAN names listed as synonymns.)