Skip to Content Search Drugs.com Search Menu Close Drugs A-Z Pill Identifier Interactions Checker FDA Alerts New Drugs News Pro Edition More Reference Prescription Drug FAQs What are pharmaceutical salt names? Print Share Drug Names and Their Pharmaceutical Salts - Clearing Up the Confusion Medically reviewed by L. Anderson, PharmD Last updated on Feb 16, 2019. You’ve given the pharmacist a prescription for your new diabetes medication called metformin hydrochloride, but when you receive your bottle and look it up on the internet, all you see is “metformin”, not “metformin hydrochloride.” Why is this? Is it the same drug your doctor ordered? What is “hydrochloride”? Why do some drugs exist in salt forms? Over 50% of all drug molecules used in medicine exist as salts, most frequently as the hydrochloride, sodium, or sulfate salts. Drug are often formed as a weak acid or