Pharmacy Pharmaceutical industry

One of the first and most useful medicinal chemicals is aspirin (CgHgO ), also known as acetylsalicylic acid. This painkiller was first trademarked and manufactured in 1899, but a precursor to the drug had been extracted from the bark of willow trees by Hippocrates as early as the 5th century b.c. The pharmaceutical industry has since developed an array of products to alleviate aches and pains, yet aspirin is still prominent on the shelves of drugstores. In pharmacies that dispense prescription drugs, an even wider array of chemicals is sold to help those with diseases ranging from high blood pressure to cancer. 

P. Boussel, H. Bonnemain, and F. Bove. History of Pharmacy and the Pharmaceutical Industry. Asklepious Press, Paris, 1983. 

Taylor D (2010) Ecopharmacostewardship - a pharmaceutical industry perspective. In Kiimmerer K, Hemple M (eds) Green and sustainable pharmacy. Springer, Berlin... 

The pharmaceutical industry presents many new challenges to such a person which include the interface with pharmacy and pharmacology, toxicological research, human volunteer studies, clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance to name just a few. Product safety is a factor which impacts on all of those endeavours and the pharmaceutical physician will be expected to work and provide advice within that framework. It will be clear to anyone that evidence of lack of safety in a medical product is not good news for the company concerned and that some level of protective action will often be required which in extreme circumstances may involve product withdrawal. It is, therefore, essential that the pharmaceutical physician should be absolutely clear what constitutes lack of safety in relation to the intended use of the product. 

Taylor, D. (2009) Ecopharmacosteward-ship a pharmaceutical industry perspective, in Sustainable Pharmacy (ed. K. Kummerer), Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, (in press). 

Pain research is a traditional and well established field within the pharmaceutical industry. Beginning with the isolation of morphine in a small pharmacy by Adam Serturner (1806), the next major breakthrough in pain treatment was achieved by the synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid by Felix Hoffmann in the Bayer Laboratories in Wuppertal (1897). Further outstanding contributions by the pharmaceutical industry were the first fully synthetic opioids pethidine (1939) and methadone (1946). Continued efforts up to now have resulted in many potent and clinically accepted analgesics with reasonable side effects and covering nearly all facets of pain treatment. However, pain treatment is far from being satisfactory in respect to more complex pain states, e.g. neuropathy, visceral pain or migraine. 

The pharmaceutical industry is represented by several organizations. Examples are the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Non-Prescription Drug Manufacturers Association, and the National Pharmaceutical Council, The schools and colleges of pharmacy are organized as the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, representing both schools and colleges, and faculty members. 

About the Author Dr. Mosavin is Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science at Loma Linda University s School of Pharmacy. Dr. Mosavin received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Kansas, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Dr. Mosavin has experience in pharmaceutical industry, hospital pharmacy, and ambulatory care pharmacy settings. His research interests encompass economic evaluation of health care delivery systems and the role of pharmacists in these systems (especially as it relates to management of chronic diseases by pharmacists). Another key area of his research is analysis of economic gains achieved by health information technology implementation in ambulatory care pharmacy practice. 

About the Authors Dr. Farmer is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Administration at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Pharmacy. He received a B.S. in pharmacy and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Farmer has experience in retail and hospital pharmacy practice settings and marketing research in the pharmaceutical industry. He teaches courses in U.S. health care systems and policy, financial management, and pharmaceutical marketing. Dr. Farmer s research is focused on issues related to medication adherence and health and economic consequences of health and medication health care policies. 

J. Liebenau, G. J. Higby and E. C. Stroud, eds, Pill Peddlers, Essays on the History of the Pharmaceutical Industry, American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, Madison, WI, 1990. 

E-mail Address FokTaiHung jSapi.org.sg Web Address www.sapi.org.sg Singapore Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (SAPI) represents a wide spectrum of pharmaceutical related businesses, namely the trading houses, manufacturers, representative offices and pharmacies. 

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