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Looking through my prescription history, the first time I was prescribed a particular drug the label said "20 Mg Tab Auro". The second and third times it said "20 Mg Tab Nort". What's the difference?

In addition to "Tab Auro" and "Tab Nort", my prescription history also includes:

  • Tab Sand
  • Tab West
  • Tab Sunp
  • Cap Shir
  • Tab Sun
  • Tab Solc

What others are there, and what are they abbreviations for? It seems obvious that "Tab" means "Tablet" and "Cap" means "Capsule", but I have no idea for the other part and none of the abbreviations lists I've managed to find include these.

I live in California in the U.S.

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    This will likely be different from one country to another so please indicate what country you're talking about.
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    Dec 30, 2018 at 23:05

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Since I am assuming that you are obtaining generic drugs, the word after tab or cap is the brand that made the drug. Auro is Aurobindo, Shir is Shire, Sand is Sandoz, and Solc is Solco. Sunp/Sun is likely Sun and Sunovion, and Nort is likely Northwest biopharmaceuticals. As you stated earlier, cap is capsule and tab is tablet. There are also orally disintegrating tabs (ODT tabs or wafers), liquid (syrup), inhalers (puffs), nasal spray, eye drops... Honestly, there are so many methods of administration, that I would be here all day to go through all: rectal suppositories, ointments, gels, creams, extended release capsules, extended release tablets, all of which seem to be beyond the scope of the question you asked.

All the brands in the US can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pharmaceutical_companies_of_the_United_States

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