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Comment by Ericson2314 | Hacker News Reader

s/This popular painkiller/Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol,/

I, for one, never studied chemistry.

Everywhere other than the US, it's far more commonly known as paracetamol.

In much the same way that nobody calls aspirin "acetylsalicylic acid", paracetamol is the generic name, except in the US for some reason.

Follow-up question: why does it seem like some drugs are packaged kinda like candy for the American market? (https://www.google.de/search?q=tylenol&tbm=isch vs. http://www.verschnupft.com/wp-content/uploads/Paracetamol-Ra...)

There's off-brand / store-brand drugs that are the same and usually packaged with less marketing, but flashy packaging with name-brand products sell more. They usually charge more too.

I think it's the difference between brand names and non-brand names. Tylenol is a brand-name thus tries to distinguish itself from the generics on the shelf next to it.

This happens in the UK/IE as well.

As a comparison.

Panadol (UK/IE) brand name for acetaminophen: https://www.google.de/search?q=panadol&tbm=isch

Walzyr. US "generic" anti-histamine: https://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/419979/450.jpg

Claratin. US Brandname anti-histamine: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91rArvDAp9L...

The US also tends not to have true generic drugs, but 'store brand' generics. So a store will carry Tylenol + a single store brand generic, instead of Tylenol + 5 different companies generic brands.

As a Brit, I would have no idea what "Tylenol" is, so I'd question the usefulness of using brand names.

And I never lived in North America - acetaminophen is used in 6 countries, the international name otherwise is paracetamol. Tylenol is a brand name in 14 countries worldwide. (Numbers from Wikipedia.)

I find using brand names for drugs less-than useful in international contexts. Brand names differ between countries, generic names don't (except paracetamol/acetaminophen).

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