Farcial Futile Pharmacy Fiasco -Let Pharmacy Return to Its Apothecary Roots

Below are some of the most important drugs ever invented in the last 100 plus years and the discipline/profession/occupation of the inventors and discoverers (Table 1).

Table 1:

There is not one pharmacist on the list! Some may say what of Sir David Jack [1924-2011] who discovered Beclometasone? He took a combined honours degree in BOTH chemistry AND pharmacy so was not a stand-alone pharmacist. The same thing applies to Nagai Nagayoshi [1844-1929] discoverer of ephedrine, who studied medicine, pharmacy and organic chemistry. Even John Stith Pemberton (1831 to 1888) creator of Coca Cola who many pharmacists claim as “the most famous pharmacist” was actually a medical doctor! Right up to the start of the industrial revolution apothecaries were at the forefront of the discovery and invention of drugs. In those days medicine, surgery, and pharmacy [apothecary] were three distinct professions. A sick person would visit the doctor (or the doctor would visit the sick person) for a diagnosis. The doctor could recommend a surgery (which the surgeon would be called upon to perform) or prescribe a medication. The patient would head for the apothecary [pharmacy] where the apothecary who also manufactured the medication would sell it to the patient. Medicine and surgery have since been combined into one profession. Pharmacy remains alone and is the worse for it! The same professional (medical doctor) today diagnoses, prescribes, and cuts. The pharmacist still sells the medicine but does not manufacture it any longer. How sad!

Perhaps it is because the pharmacy profession lost its highest meaning (drug manufacture) in its disjointed transition from apothecary that the profession now desperately seeks to ape medical doctors and has become so inward looking and hostile to other professions that it will not permit even a medical doctor or a holder of a first-class degree from a related discipline (e.g., pharmacology) to pursue a master’s degree in pharmacy! Let pharmacy return to the apothecary model or be downgraded to a diploma occupation! [1-2] India has set an excellent example in this regard [3].

None.

No conflicts of interest.

1. Mister Seun Ayoade (2020) The Ongoing Erosion of Division of Labour Spells Doom for Healthcare Delivery. LOJ Phar & Cli Res 2(2).
2. Mister Seun Ayoade (2020) Wanted: A 21st Century Flexner. LOJ Phar & Cli Res 2(3).
3. Am J Pharm Educ (2010) Pharmacy Education in India Subal C Basak 74(4): 68.