Pharmaceutical product

“ In the past, pharmaceutical houses, ever anxious to market something new, on the slightest provocation have placed on the market, in the form of pills, powder, elixir, ampule, etc., every drug for which some sort of medical recommendation could be found. In marketing these dosage forms, the manufacturer has too often been little concerned about the quality of the drugs used.150 Just at present, for instance, some interest is being shown in iron cacodylate ”

“ In the chemical factories every drug required by the Medical Pharmacopoeia and every chemical required in the arts and manufactures was made, but no drugs were sold except on a medical prescription, or chemicals except to responsible parties. ”

“ These investigations have included a study of the action of strychnin in cardiac disease, a comparison of the action of absorption and excretion of iodid preparations, a study of the pharmacology of the opium alkaloids, etc. Appreciating that the available knowledge of proprietary drugs is one sided in that it comes from investigations made by interested pharmaceutical concerns or from investigations made at the instigation of these firms, the Council is planning a comprehensive study of many of the synthetic drugs that have gained some vogue during recent years. ”

“ But it is not to pure chemistry alone that we are indebted for the elegant dosing of the present day; progressive pharmacy, with its tablets, its coated pills, and its capsules, has put to shame the old-time purveyor of galenicals. ”

“ Through laboratory research work, modern medical science has progressed to such an extent that in some diseases the form of medication has changed entirely, while in others medication is reduced to a minimum. Chemical combinations, synthetics, biological products, vaccines, etc., have all in a natural sequence deprived the pharmacist of many prescriptions. ”

“ Naturally Rule 4 has been bitterly opposed by most proprietary firms. Arguing that many physicians dispense their own drugs, pharmaceutical firms have insisted that every medicinal preparation should bear on its label, not only the dose of the preparation, but also a statement of the diseases in which the article is indicated. ”

“ That there is a healthy tendency to use single drugs for their definite action and to discard combinations (be they shotgun proprietaries or “mixed” vaccines) is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that at the last revision of the U. S. Pharmacopeia a considerable number of complex antiquities were omitted from that book.
Feeling confident that this meets with the endorsement of the profession, the Council is examining more critically the evidence for the value of pharmaceutical mixtures.— (From The Journal A. M. A., May 10, 1919.) ”

“ The laboratory attempts to be to the members of the American Medical Association what the prescription pharmacist is, or should be, to the prescribing physician—a storehouse of chemical and pharmaceutical information. In the belief that an insufficient familiarity with the chemistry and pharmacy of drugs constitutes the chief reason for the extensive use of unscientific, worthless or fraudulent proprietary remedies, this service is rendered by the laboratory as a contribution to the cause of rational therapy. ”

“ It has been most gratifying to the laboratory that The Journal receives an increasing number of inquiries both as regards the chemical and pharmaceutical questions involved in the writing of prescriptions and as regards the composition of secret and semisecret proprietaries (often because they are prescribed by the inquirer’s colleague) and “patent medicines” (which are taken by his patient) . The laboratory has tried its best to answer the many inquiries received. Many of the questions which come in can be answered by a pharmacist or chemist without hesitation. ”

“ In certain instances it is absolutely necessary that the article produced shall maintain a definite standard of quality and purity—and, it may be added, shall be sold at a reasonable price. Enterprising pharmaceutical manufacturers have usually been ready to appropriate the results of scientific research by investigators or therapeutic measures suggested by practicing physicians. ”

“ Progress toward a rational and scientific drug therapy must continue, and, therefore, it is important that the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry should continue to make the investigation of proprietary medicines its chief work. ”

“ Drugs classed as similar are by no means alike in action; laxatives, tonics, carminatives, diuretics are combined with distinct advantage, economy of dose, enhanced effect, potency not obtainable with the single drug. ”

“ The immediate and positive beneficial results of the law may be seen in the fact that now very few, if indeed any, spurious or sophisticated chemical preparations, for phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal purposes, are even offered at our ports, or by any possibility find their way into our markets. ”

“ The term animal drug product means each specific strength or potency of a particular active ingredient or ingredients in final dosage form marketed by a particular manufacturer or distributor, which is uniquely identified by the labeler code and product code portions of the national drug code, and for which an animal drug application or a supplemental animal drug application has been approved. ”

“ Every pharmacist has observed the greatly increased development of the commercial side of the drug business as compared with its scientific side, which rather seems to be accorded a secondary place in the conduct of its affairs, regardless of the fact that this feature is the one that gives it character, and the only one that distinguishes it from ordinary merchandising. ”

“ It is to the science of Chemistry that Pharmacy must look for future advancement, and even the most obscure and most unintelligible of the many chemical investigations which are being carried on at present may eventually prove to be important steps in some line of reasoning which will have the enriching of pharmacy as its result. Nothing in science is too insignificant for notice. ”

“ The people of India were skilled in chemical and pharmaceutical work. The drugs were prepared by them in a great variety of ways—as, for instance, extracts of the juices of plants, infusions, decoctions, electuaries, mixtures, syrups, pills, pastes, powders, suppositories, collyria, salves, etc. Practicing physicians carried with them a sort of portable medicine chest, and they often collected, themselves, the medicinal plants which they required. ”

“ In pharmacy, the term CONCENTRATED is commonly applied to any liquid preparation possessing more than the usual strength. Thus, we have concentrated infusions, decoctions, liquors, solutions, tinctures, and essences, most of which are made of 8 times the common strength. This is generally effected by using 8 times the usual quantity of the ingredients, with a given portion of the menstruum, and operating by digestion and percolation; the latter being generally adopted when the articles are bulky. When the menstruum is water, a little spirit is added, to make the product keep. ”

“ Finally, the manufacture of acetyl­salicylic acid in this country is another example of the fact that American chemists can produce the drug synthetics, and at the same time make products as good as, if not better than, those of German origin. ”

“ An extended examination of the subject would show us that pharmacy played a very important part in the founding, particularly of that field of chemistry which is usually designated by the name "organic chemistry"—a field in which many of the brilliant modern victories of chemists have been achieved. Without the fundamental work of pharmacists in extracting from plants their valuable constituents, organic chemistry would to-day be in its infancy, instead of being what it is—a giant of mighty strength, exerting a controlling influence upon a number of important occupations, including pharmacy. ”

“ In prominent type on the outer label of the trade package we are told that the preparation is intended for the treatment of “COUGH, ASTHMA, PHTHISIS, PNEUMONIA, BRONCHITIS, LARYNGITIS, WHOOPING-COUGH AND KINDRED INFECTIONS.” In much smaller type: “Glyco-Heroin (Smith) is distinctly a product designed expressly for the use of physicians.” The circular included with the trade package, however, bears statements which would tend to encourage self-drugging by the layman, and in view of the manner in which the preparation is exploited are undoubtedly intended to do so. ”

“ In cases where the medicinal virtues are not apparently lodged in a single principle capable of being isolated, pharmacy has recourse to other processes, and obtains by expression, percolation, and evaporation, or distillation, often in vacuo, concentrated extracts which enable us to dispense with the crude drugs. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact, and one which is attested by every medical man, that the action of a drug may be made effective or ineffective according to the manner in which it is prescribed. There are certain subordinate drugs which prepare the way, as it were, for the action of a principal drug, and the proportion between the ingredients of a prescription is of vital importance in relation to the effect produced. ”

“ Designation.—The Secretary shall designate a method of manufacturing a drug as an advanced manufacturing technology under this section if the drug manufacturer demonstrates that such technology is likely to— “ (1) prevent or resolve a drug shortage; “ (2) maintain an adequate supply of critical medications for national emergencies; or “ (3) promote the adoption of innovative approaches to drug product design and manufacturing. ”

“ Many substances are, in themselves, so untractable, that the addition of some matter foreign to the active ingredients, is absolutely essential for imparting convenience of form. It is generally considered that very little skill and judgment is required in the selection of such a substance, provided it can fulfil the mechanical intention just alluded to—the fact however is, that the medicinal power of the pill may be materially controlled, modified, or even subverted, by the mode in which it is formed into a mass. ”

“ More than one druggist lacks material for putting up prescriptions: glycerine, cascara, bromide of potassium, boracic acid, carbolic disinfectants, ginger, zinc oxide, blue ointment, acetate of lead, and iodoform. ”

“ Whenever we are in a position to inquire into the facts by chemical or other means, we find that the Eliminative medicine is itself contained in the secretion which is augmented by its action, and that when the secretion upon which it usually acts is not augmented, the medicine has passed off by some other secretion instead. ”

“ The curious signs on the coloured carboys in chemists' windows, which were commonly to be seen until the middle of the 19th century, were signs used by the alchemists to indicate various chemical substances. In 1694 the apothecaries had increased from 114 to nearly 1000, and many of them, having acquired a knowledge of the uses of medicine, began to prescribe medicines for their customers and to assume the functions of the physician, who retorted in 1697 by establishing dispensaries, where medicines could be procured at their intrinsic value, or at cost price. ”

“ Everybody knows of the progress made in other branches—in bacteriology, in pathology, in biologic chemistry, in surgery, in etiology and in application of technical methods to diagnosis. Recently, however, pharmacologic research and the application of scientific methods in the study of the physiologic action of drugs are resulting in definite, positive progress. An important lesson, incidentally learned through this scientific investigation, is the fallibility of the drug therapy described in textbooks. ”

“ Genuine Patent Medicines. Soda, Potass, Seltzer, and other Mineral Waters.
Agent to the British Empire Mutual Life Assurance Company.
p. 3G. W. PARNELL,
PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST,
11, VICTORIA ROAD, PIMLICO.
Prescriptions and FAMILY RECIPES are carefully prepared at this Establishment with Drugs of the purest quality, by duly qualified Assistants, under the immediate superintendence of the Principal, and dispensed in strict accordance with the Formulæ of the British and Foreign Pharmacopœias. ”

“ Some persons, while admitting that our medicines are good pharmaceutical compounds, object to them on the ground that they are too often used with insufficient judgment. We propose to obviate that difficulty by enlightening the people as to the structure and functions of their bodies, the causes, character, and symptoms of disease, and by indicating the proper and judicious employment of our medicines, together with such auxiliary treatment as may be necessary. ”

“ The rapid and skilful preparation of pills, from all the numerous substances of which they are composed, is justly considered to demand the highest qualifications in the practical dispenser. The medicinals employed must be made into a consistent and moderately firm mass, sufficiently plastic to be rolled or moulded into any shape, without adhering to the fingers, knife, or slab, and yet sufficiently solid to retain the globular form when divided into pills. ”

“ Pharmacy, or the art of selecting, extracting, preparing, and compounding medicines from vegetable, animal, and mineral substances, is an acquirement which must have been almost as ancient as man himself on the earth. ”

“ If the action of a drug on the organism is chemical, and if neither the drug nor the organism has changed, the action must be the same. If we still desire to bring about the action and if there is no better way to do it, we must use the drug, and there is still need for the druggist. As a matter of fact, the number of drugs at your disposal today is vastly greater than ever before, largely owing to the labor, and the ingenuity, of the analytical chemist. ”