Name in the news: Opill

Earlier this week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the non-prescription sale of Opill (norgestrel), a progestin-only daily oral contraceptive. Although norgestrel has been used in prescription contraceptives since 1973, Opill is the first oral contraceptive approved for over-the-counter (OTC) sale in the U.S.

Opill’s manufacturer, Perrigo—an American-Irish company with headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Dublin—said the contraceptive will be available in the U.S. in early 2024.

Opill package

 

The announcement represents mostly good news for, as the website puts it, “people capable of becoming pregnant.” (The fly in the ointment: Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies aren’t required to cover the cost of over-the-counter birth control. Opill’s retail cost hasn’t yet been disclosed.) But what about the naming news? Good, bad, or meh?

Disclosure: I have no inside information about the Opill name, so what follows are mostly educated guesses. Sometimes a trademark filing will provide some etymology, but that’s not the case with Opill, whose U.S. trademark registrations were filed in 2015 and 2017 by a French company, HRA Pharma, that was acquired by Perrigo in 2022. And neither the press release nor the Opill website reveals any clues.

My take: I was surprised that a name as generic-looking as Opill made it through the trademark-review process. “Pill” and “the Pill” (sometimes “The Pill”) have been informal names for oral birth control since at least 1956, when the Times of London reported from a medical conference in Tokyo: “What the people who attended the Tokyo conference wanted to hear..was that the miracle ‘pill’ had been discovered which would permit of fertility being turned on and off like a tap... Even if the ‘pill’ were to materialize one day…”

“One day” wouldn’t arrive until 1960, when prescription oral contraceptives became available to the public. In 1975, country singer Loretta Lynn would title her best-known song “The Pill,” and everyone knew she wasn’t talking about aspirin; the lyrics were based in part on her own childbearing experience (four children before she turned 20) and subsequent liberation. Some radio stations refused to play the song.

 

Adding one vowel in front of “pill” does not, to me at least, mitigate the name’s generic quality. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office did not seem to have a problem with it, though. And Opill may have avoided the FDA’s famously strict scrutiny simply because it’s not a prescription drug.

Now, what about that vowel?

“O” may be playing one or more roles here. It may stand for “oral” or “over-the-counter” or even “one”—the daily dose. Maybe it’s meant to evoke the round shape of the pill itself. Or “O” as in “OMG I love it!” Or the start to an ode: O Pill! O Pill of freedom! Or maybe it’s a zero, as in “no more worries.” Maybe it’s all of the above.

UPDATE: On Twitter, Joshua J. Friedman (no relation) surmised that the O in Opill comes from Ovrette, the trade name of a predecessor drug marketed by Pfizer between 1973 and 2005. And commenter Dan Freiberg—among others—joked that Perrigo’s Irish-American roots would make O’Pill a logical spelling. 

The name certainly passes some crucial branding tests: It’s easy to pronounce and memorable, and the spelling is intuitive.

Still, how a pill called “pill” achieved legal and FDA approval is something of a mystery. If you can shed some light, please do so in the comments.

Here’s one mystery I can solve: Perrigo, the name of Opill’s manufacturer, isn’t a portmanteau or a coined name. It’s the surname of the two brothers, Luther and Charles Perrigo, who founded the company in Michigan in 1887. The name is probably a simplified spelling of a French name, Perrigaud or Peregoy. More about Perrigo here.

Comments

[Daan Freiberg]

Since Perrigo is an American-Irish company, maybe it suggests, "O'Pill." Perhaps an ad campaign in partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey? (Have sex and drink responsibly)

[Mark R Prus]

Nancy. Agree with you 100%. I have no clue how Opill got a trademark given the generic use of "The Pill." I'd love to hear from a trademark attorney because I honestly would not have even considered presenting Opill due to trademark concerns.