This
list of pharmaceutical compound number prefixes details a
pharmaceutical drug labeling standard. Pharmaceutical companies produce a large number of compounds, which cannot all
be given names. Instead, they are systematically numbered for internal reference. The number is prefixed with a letter code indicating which company synthesized the compound. For example, CP-529414 is the compound number for the recently failed Pfizer experimental drug
torcetrapib. If the company or its agents choose to publish information or research results about the drug before it has been assigned a generic name (such as an
INN,
USAN, or
BAN), they will refer to it by this number.