- Email: [email protected]
Washington Views
Was
• lews
Proprietary manufacturers, even when sometimes they are subsidiaries of ethical drug firms, in their eagerness for mass distribution of their self-medication remedies to consumers, tend to revert to the old-time medicine man type of spiel s and humbug in their advertising and tend to ignore retail pharmacy whenever it seems to be more expedient from the economic standpoint to dis tribute through the supermarkets, groceries, variety stores, and other nonprofessional outlets. There is a general tendency toward this short-range thinking and planning which undermines Pharmacy, and destroys public esteem for these remedies. The Federal Government has been accused, by a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, of distributing unfair and sensational news releases before those criticized either know of the charges or have the right to state their position. The trend away from dispensing of drugs by physicians is being accelerated by pharmacists who are constantly improving prescription service and fostering good physician-pharmacist relations. The insatiable thirst on the part of the public for news about new drugs is due in large part to the realization that scientists in general and medical scientists in particular will determine whether the public, even the world itself, will survive. Blood for transfusions, glucose for intravenous injections, and antibIOtIcs would be the medical supplies in greatest demand in regions of local radioactive fall out produced by nuclear attack, according to Willard F. Libby, Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, who pointed out that 700,000 persons in the United States would die from bone cancer and leukemia as a result of atmospheric contamination with radi~active materials during the 60 years following an explosion of 5,00d megatons of nuclear bombs in some other part of the world. There is a definite trend for physicians to maintain offices in hospitals for greater efficiency, prestige, income, and convenience. This is influencing the distribution of prescriptions so that many that would normally be filled in retail pharmacies are now being filled in hospital pharmacies. Pharmacists can help prevent serious lnJuries by suitably warning youngsters and at times refusing to sell potentially dangerous chemicals to the young boys and girls of this nation who, caught up in the space craze, are losing limbs and eyes in their attempts to build rockets and other weapons with the aid of materials purchased in pharmacies. Pharmacists across this nation in education, industry , distribution, and government service are slowly succeeding in their efforts to consolidate the total professional and scientific personnel of all pharmaceutical areas of activity into one strong, active organization which can speak forcefully and constructively for the whole of Pharmacy. VOL. 19, NO. 11, NOVEMBER, 1958/ PRACTICAL PHARMACY EDITION
64S
• lews
Proprietary manufacturers, even when sometimes they are subsidiaries of ethical drug firms, in their eagerness for mass distribution of their self-medication remedies to consumers, tend to revert to the old-time medicine man type of spiel s and humbug in their advertising and tend to ignore retail pharmacy whenever it seems to be more expedient from the economic standpoint to dis tribute through the supermarkets, groceries, variety stores, and other nonprofessional outlets. There is a general tendency toward this short-range thinking and planning which undermines Pharmacy, and destroys public esteem for these remedies. The Federal Government has been accused, by a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, of distributing unfair and sensational news releases before those criticized either know of the charges or have the right to state their position. The trend away from dispensing of drugs by physicians is being accelerated by pharmacists who are constantly improving prescription service and fostering good physician-pharmacist relations. The insatiable thirst on the part of the public for news about new drugs is due in large part to the realization that scientists in general and medical scientists in particular will determine whether the public, even the world itself, will survive. Blood for transfusions, glucose for intravenous injections, and antibIOtIcs would be the medical supplies in greatest demand in regions of local radioactive fall out produced by nuclear attack, according to Willard F. Libby, Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, who pointed out that 700,000 persons in the United States would die from bone cancer and leukemia as a result of atmospheric contamination with radi~active materials during the 60 years following an explosion of 5,00d megatons of nuclear bombs in some other part of the world. There is a definite trend for physicians to maintain offices in hospitals for greater efficiency, prestige, income, and convenience. This is influencing the distribution of prescriptions so that many that would normally be filled in retail pharmacies are now being filled in hospital pharmacies. Pharmacists can help prevent serious lnJuries by suitably warning youngsters and at times refusing to sell potentially dangerous chemicals to the young boys and girls of this nation who, caught up in the space craze, are losing limbs and eyes in their attempts to build rockets and other weapons with the aid of materials purchased in pharmacies. Pharmacists across this nation in education, industry , distribution, and government service are slowly succeeding in their efforts to consolidate the total professional and scientific personnel of all pharmaceutical areas of activity into one strong, active organization which can speak forcefully and constructively for the whole of Pharmacy. VOL. 19, NO. 11, NOVEMBER, 1958/ PRACTICAL PHARMACY EDITION
64S