History of pharmacy in the United States

Apothecary—an ancient title that, especially in pre-modern or early modern contexts, indicates a broader set of skills and duties than the core role of dispensing medications, like prescribing remedies and even giving some treatments difficult to self-administer, e.g. enemas—have largely been within the "pharmacist" umbrella in the U.S. since the mid-19th century, when Edward Parrish of the American Pharmaceutical Association successfully proposed that the APhA "consider all the varied pharmaceutical practitioners 'pharmacists'” to better "standardize the field.

[6] As soon as Columbus started his explorations of the Americas in the late 15th century, a European effort to find valuable medicinal plants among the flora of the New World to add to the medical canon got underway.

Unfortunately for Oglethorpe (and all the Southern colonists) the expedition that marked this first attempt by an organized group of Old World apothecaries to benefit from British North America's potential as a medicine farm never bore fruit.

[10] The first "drugstores" in North America "appeared in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia,"[11] with likely proto-drugstores—for example Gysbert van Imbroch ran a "general store" that sold drugs from 1663 to 1665 in Wildwyck, New Netherland,[12] today's Kingston, New York—preceding the dedicated apothecary shops of the 1700s, and providing a model.

Because of that model, and customs that stretch back to the first apothecary shops in the medieval Arab world[4] most drugstores continued selling more general goods, perfumes, cosmetics, and drinks of all sorts alongside medicines, and still do.

That the Spanish colonials, not the British, were the first in North America to license a pharmacist (in 1769 in New Orleans)[13] and were also the first to regulate pharmacy as a separate profession, points to the importance of non-British colonial governments and, indeed, settlers from mainland Europe throughout North America, in importing and translating the more modern pharmacy methods, standards and ways of organization and regulation—developing in Europe since at least the 1600s—for application in the infant United States.

"[14] Jesuit contributions, especially in translating Native American ethnobotany into medicines for European use, were highly influential as pharmacy developed in North America.

There was no method of protecting the public from fraud through control or regulation of the sale of adulterated and harmful medicinal products, and the credulous citizenry of the young nation was beguiled by every description of fakir and charlatan into buying their fantastic panaceas.

"[3] Lines between the professions of pharmacist, wholesale druggist and physician did not yet exist in the way they would later; "their provinces overlapped, and appellations, which often meant little, frequently changed.

"Even in the 1760s, when a younger and largely native born cohort of physicians returned from Europe, most of the reputable and even famous among the American medici ran their own pharmaceutical business,"[16] which, for most doctors for the bulk of the 18th century included mostly medications mixed and dispensed by hand, sometimes augmented with a supply of patent medicines imported from the UK or mainland Europe.

"[18] Important early American "apothecary shops" include the one in colonial Fredericksburg run by later-brigadier general in the Continental Army, Hugh Mercer,[19] (the building is now a museum, and has been "scientifically dated" to 1771 or 1772[20]).

And the Marshall Apothecary (established 1729, open for 96 years)[21] in Philadelphia, which was a manufacturer of medicines as well as a retailer, and served as an important supplier throughout the Revolutionary War.

[22] Thanks to the ruling in the Rose Case back in London, apothecaries began 1705 as fully accredited medical professionals who could write prescriptions.

'"[23] The pharmacopoeia, which simply lists useful drugs—or sometimes more importantly, drops questionable substances from the canon—"came fully into its own in the early modern age",[24] encompassing roughly the span of history covering the 1500s up until the French Revolutions in the late 1700s.

At the Second International Congress of Pharmacy in Paris, France, August 21 to 24, 1867, Procter argued forcefully against the "compulsory limitation of pharmacies" (capping their number in a given city or province) under consideration, telling the assembled delegates that, in the U.S., "there is not the slightest obstacle toward a multiplication of drug stores save that a lack of success" and that the American public is "a forceful agent of reform"[35] to keep unscrupulous operators in check.

[36] As this 1851 notice from the New York Daily Times exemplifies, pharmacy schools (here the New York College of Pharmacy) often were acting as professional associations, or at least promoted pharmacist education and the distinct profession of pharmacist with a guild-like zeal, with this article advertising training for "those who desire to qualify themselves thoroughly as Apothecaries" while calling out "inferior druggists" and cautioning that "community ought not to be indifferent" to the character and motives of druggists who "stand aloof from the College.

Downey had previously only apprenticed at an apothecary in Washington, D.C., until 1846 and later worked as an independent "druggist" in Cincinnati, Ohio, before finally arriving in California in 1849.

Small (in order to further pursue his true vocation in politics and go on to become the seventh Governor of California from 1860 to 1862) and shortly thereafter Dr. Myles died and a German immigrant, pharmacist had taken the business over.

It was not until c. 1860, which saw the first of two European, immigrant, career pharmacists / apothecaries (both of German descent) who arrived in the newly founded American frontier town of Los Angeles, California.

[41] The original prescription book of pharmacist Adolph Junge bears historical witness to his activity and can still be viewed / researched today in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (as part of the "Prudhomme Papers" Archives).

[citation needed] Following 10 years later, in 1929, the brothers opened their own Los Angeles retail outlets under the name Thrifty Cut Rate, which would shortly thereafter be renamed to Thrifty Drug Store and in turn would usher in the age of the modern "drug, sundries & household wares" chain-store model with hired/contracted professional in-house pharmacists.

With the rise of mechanization and mass production, new modes of medication-delivery, among them the tablet (1884),[42] the enteric-coated pill (1884)[43] and the gelatin capsule (first produced on a large scale in 1875 by Parke, Davis & Company, Detroit)[42] became practicable.

[49] This bill failed to pass and was reintroduced in 2015 by Representatives Brett Guthrie (R-KY), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), and Todd Young (R-IN).

[51] It was reintroduced for the third time on Jan 12, 2017 during the 115th Congress by Representatives Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

[53][54][55] These tasks include the following: Under this movement for expansion of pharmacists' scope of practice, the state of California instated Senate Bill 493 in 2014, written by Senator Ed Hernandez, authorizing pharmacists to furnish self-administered hormonal contraceptives, nicotine replacement products, and prescription medications recommended for international travelers not requiring a diagnosis, among other functions.