British Approved Name - BAN Harmonisation

BAN Harmonisation

Recent European Union legislation, requiring harmonisation of the BP with the European Pharmacopoeia (EP), as well as the adoption of International Nonproprietary Names across the EU has meant that, with the notable exception of adrenaline/epinephrine, BANs are now the same as the INNs.

This has resulted in an interesting situation in countries such as Australia. While the British Pharmacopoeia and BANs are the official pharmacopoeia/names defined by legislation in these countries, the former-BANs continue to be used, purportedly because of the difficulty of changeover. Despite the importance of the BP there appears to be little or no movement in the direction of changing these names.