There are two new Covid-fighting drugs I haven't heard much about - is it because they are unpronounceable?

It is a couple of weeks since the announcement of two important new drugs in the treatment of Covid. They have not really been mentioned since, especially in the broadcast media. I think I know why: their names are a right mouthful and have been made a meal of several times by people like me. The prime minister, alas, fumbled them in the first place, but on this occasion I don’t see we can blame him. Even with a bit of practice and a steady run-up, tocilizumab and sarilumab remain hard to say and next to impossible to remember.

I have long wondered where they conjure these names up. It is tricky enough, especially for older people, to get your head around what you’re taking and when and what for, without dealing with all these unmemorable, apparently random collections of syllables. I have been taking something for reflux for years and I still forget whether it’s opremazole or omeprazole.

Dr Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, was kind enough to explain the method in the madness: all drugs need a unique non-proprietary name that is recognisable the world over; they have to work in all the world’s languages. There’s always a stem – mab, in the case of the above Covid drugs – which stands for something. Mab stands for monoclonal antibody (good pub quiz material, this). With the rest of the word there is some room for pharma people to let their imaginations run wild. Ward’s favourite is another mab, Bimekizumab, whose name reflects the fact that the antibody inhibits two proteins. Thanks possibly to a wild outbreak of mischief, this could be read as “Buy me kizumab”. Who said pharma has no sense of fun?

I was so impressed I told Ward that I wished I was suffering from whatever it would take to be prescribed bimekizumab. “Trust me, you don’t,” she said.

These are all non-proprietary names, of course; the branding geniuses have other ideas. In some cases, you can see why. In a moment of ardour, what kind of gentleman is going to want to have to pop out some sildenafil pills? Viagra definitely has a better ring to it.

• Adrian Chiles is a Guardian columnist