For all drugs and therapeutic agents, the WHO has, since the early 1950s, assigned a generic name, known as the International Nonproprietary Name (INN), in order to facilitate the identification of the pharmaceutical ingredients that compose them.

In the case of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs, or Moabs), the INN is also applied, and they are assigned a generic name based on a specific schematic structure.

In the past, the situation was much simpler than it is now. Until 2017, all mAbs ended in –mab. The INN or name of each mAb was assigned according to a simple scheme that contemplated 4 aspects:

a) Random prefix: Free choice by the manufacturer
b) Type of target: Which target is it directed at (tumor cell, bacteria, endothelium, vascular cell, etc.)
c) Species of origin: Animal, chimeric, humanized, or fully human.
d) Common suffix: mab, but due to the explosion in the number of mAbs, this has changed.

In November 2021, the WHO published a new nomenclature to try to adapt to the explosion of mAbs, where there are already very numerous segments of the names, and also, placing very different origins.

At the moment, there are already more than 800 mAbs registered, with all kinds of origins, technologies, objectives, etc. However, the scheme initially developed for their names remains, although it has been expanded in a gigantic way.