Institute for Drugs

And the Effort to Establish an Institute for Drug Research in Post World War I America... 

In the postwar years a spirit of "chemical boosterism," to use a term coined in a recent historical study, emerged in the United States. A group of chemists, chemical journalists and science popularizers acted as propagandists for the chemical profession and industry. Their message, delivered with conviction to the public through a variety of popular publications, was that chemistry was vital to the national defense and to economic progress. One of the more active of these chemical boosters was Charles Holmes Herty, and his efforts to establish a national institute for drug research must be viewed within this context (11). 

A significant number of letters were received in response to this request and were published in the Journal over the next few months (22). Basically all of the correspondents favored the idea of an institute for drug research, although they differed somewhat in their vision of how it might operate. In the meantime, the New York Section adopted a resolution to refer the matter to the Advisory Committee of the American Chemical Society, urging that the proposed institute be undertaken under the auspices of the Society. The Advisory Committee authorized President William Nichols to appoint a committee to report on the endowment that would be needed to support such an institute and to outline the policies under which it should be operated. The Committee on the Institute for Drug Research was appointed in February 1919 with Herty, to nobody s surprise, as Chairman. 

Criticism of the proposed institute also came from another quarter, namely from the ranks of organized pharmacy. Already in December of 1918, Edward Kremers of the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, one of the nation s leading pharmaceutical educators and a researcher in plant chemistry, wrote to Frank Eldred of Eli Lilly and Company about the institute for drug research. Kremers complained "But why should American pharmaceutical manufacturers support an institution fostered by the American Chemical Society when pharmaceutical institutions are in the greatest need of all the financial support in sight. I trust that our pharmaceutical manufacturers will prove true to their own calling first" (44). 

Parsons, Charles to members of Committee on the Institute for Drug Research. February 12, 1919, John J. Abel Papers, Alan Mason Chesney Archives, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Hereafter this collection will be cited as "Abel Papers."... 

Herty to members of Committee on the Institute for Drug Research. March 11, 1919, Abel Papers. 

Minutes of the Joint Meeting [Oct. 11, 1920] of the Committee on Institute for Drug Research and Representatives of the Chemical Foundation, Inc." Three-page typescript, Abel Papers. 

American Botanical Council (English trans.). (1998). The Complete German Commission E Monographs Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines. Original source German Commission E of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. Austin, TX American Botanical Council. 

Thanks are due to the Eederal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Bonn, for financial support and Christine Weber, Yaser Bitar, Daniela Brinz, Susanne Kopec, Frank Wienen, and Nikolai Novatchev, Institute of Pharmacy, University of Wurzburg, for CE investigations and providing the figures to this chapter. 

Groningen University Institute for Drug Exploration (GUIDE)... 

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