Sean Cole

Yeah, she's like an OG.

And unlike Brand Institute, with its teams of 15 people or whatever, the places Arlene's worked, people tend to tackle projects on their own.

And just to give you another picture of how drug names are invented, there's this one drug she was assigned back in 1992 that was for benign prostatic hyperplasia, enlarged prostate basically, which makes it difficult to pee.

In trying to figure out what to name this drug, Arlene ran a focus group with a bunch of urologists.

And this one doctor in particular said something that stuck with her.

A strong stream of urine.

Yes.

Oh, my God.

I know.

I met the woman who named Viagra.

She gave me her pen.

I'm going to keep it forever and ever.

It is.

And this is where this naming business gets even more complicated.

Super interesting trick of the industry, just to digress here for a second.

So...

Arlene came up with the name Viagra for this drug to treat prostate enlargement.

But for a lot of complicated reasons, they didn't end up using the name Viagra for that benign prostatic hyperplasia drug.

And as far as Arlene knows, they just held on to the name.

It's true that companies can bank names in certain circumstances and use them later when a better fit comes along.