Pharmacy

I

Introduction

Pharmacy, practice of compounding and dispensing drugs and providing drug-related information to consumers; also the place where such medicinal products are prepared. Pharmacy is an area of materia medica, that branch of medical science concerning the sources, nature, properties, and preparation of drugs. Pharmacists share with the chemical and medical profession responsibility for discovering new drugs and synthesizing organic compounds of therapeutic value. In addition, the community pharmacist, or druggist, is increasingly called upon to give advice in matters of health and hygiene.

II

Education and Practice

In the United States, many colleges of pharmacy offer four-year programs leading to a bachelor of science (B.S.) degree in the pharmaceutical sciences. Colleges of pharmacy also offer programs leading to a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. Depending on the amount of schooling attendees have completed before they begin, it can take from four to seven years to complete this degree. To become a practicing pharmacist, however, a license is required. Licenses are granted by states after the following requirements have been met: graduation from one of the 82 colleges and schools of pharmacy with programs accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education; participation in an internship under a registered pharmacist; and satisfactory completion of a national licensing examination. Pharmacists may practice their profession in a pharmacy located in a hospital or nursing home, or in a community-based pharmacy, such as those found in drug stores and supermarkets. Pharmacists may also work for managed care organizations, consulting firms, or pharmaceutical companies, which may hire these professionals to conduct scientific research or to participate in the development and production of new pharmaceutical products.

III

History

In antiquity, pharmacy and the practice of medicine were often combined, sometimes under the direction of priests, both men and women, who ministered to the sick with religious rites as well. Many peoples of the world continue the close association of drugs, medicine, and religion or faith. Specialization first occurred in the 8th century in the civilized world around Baghdād. It gradually spread to Europe as alchemy, eventually evolving into chemistry as physicians began to abandon beliefs that were not demonstrable in the physical world. Physicians often both prepared and prescribed medicines; individual pharmacists not only compounded prescriptions but manufactured medicaments in bulk lots for general sale.

The modern pharmacist deals with complex pharmaceutical remedies far different from the elixirs, spirits, and powders described in the Pharmacopeia of London (1618) and the Pharmacopeia of Paris (1639). In the United States today, major medicines, those regarded as having the greatest therapeutic value, are selected for inclusion in the Pharmacopeia of the United States, first published in 1820. Selections for this resource are made by a Committee on Revision, whose members include the United States surgeon general and representatives of all colleges of medicine and pharmacy and all state medical and pharmaceutical associations.

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