“Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist named John Pemberton. He carried the jug of the new product down the street to Jacob’s Pharmacy where it was sampled and pronounced “excellent” and placed on sale for 5 cents a glass as a soda fountain drink”
“In 2500 BCE, it was common in China to consume gold in the hopes of prolonging life…In approximately 700 CE, the Iranian chemist Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan Al-Azdi, who has been credited as the father of Arab chemistry and one of the founders of modern pharmacy, discovered how to make gold dissolve in liquid in a concoction that became referred to as aqua regia, or royal water.
“Similar to the concept of “like cures like” found in homeopathic medicine, the consumption of human brain emerged in the 17th century as a cure to ailments of the mind. Thought to have the potential to cure epilepsy in particular, feasting on human brains of the recently deceased was believed to work wonders on the brains of the living”
“Hubert Humphrey was a former US Vice President and senator as well as a pharmacist like his father. The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) established the Hubert Humphrey Award in 1978, which is given annually to recognize APhA members who have made substantial contributions in government and/or legislative service.”
“Chris Hemsworth worked in a pharmacy in Australia before making it big in Hollywood. One of his jobs was to sterilize breast pumps after women returned them to the pharmacy.”
“Dr. Pepper was created by Charles Alderton, a pharmacist, in 1885. Alderton worked in a drugstore in Waco, Texas, and spent a lot of time compounding medications. In his spare time, Alderton also enjoyed mixing carbonated drinks at the soda fountain, and he loved how the syrups made the store smell. He decided to make a drink that tasted like the store smelled, and he came up with Dr. Pepper!”
“The soda fountain was ‘born’ in the 1850’s, when people would seek fountain drinks from their local drugstore to cure physical ailments. Pharmacies…began to offer milkshakes…at their fountains. Almost every drugstore had a soda fountain by the early 1920’s. Due to prohibition, which began in 1919, bars were closing and people needed a place to socialize. At the time, ice cream parlors were usually standalone businesses and not part of a soda fountain. Pharmacist Jacob Baur started the Liquid Carbonic Company in 1888, where he manufactured carbon dioxide in tanks, and then the real soda fountain was born.”
“Before there were pharmacies there were apothecaries, which could be run by anyone after a brief apprenticeship. But that meant little in the way of regulation or standardization of treatments. In 1804, Louisiana changed that. It became the first state to require licensing for pharmacists, and in 1816 French immigrant Louis Dufilho Jr. became America’s first licensed pharmacist. He opened his pharmacy in 1823, making medicine and science accessible to a fast-growing city as it battled devastating disease.”
“Oliver Chase, an English-born pharmacist…made apothecary lozenges, rolling ropes of sugar-and-gum dough mixed with medicinal ingredients and cutting them into tablets. …demand for lozenges was high, especially when Chase started making versions without medicine, which could simply be eaten as candy. Chase and his brother set up a factory in South Boston producing “Chase lozenges.” Their company would later be known as the New England Confectionary Company (Necco), which would go on to become America’s longest-operating candy company.”
“In 1979, Runge was elected president of the American Pharmacists Association — the first woman and the first African American to be named to the role, ending a 126-year run of white, male presidents. After being sworn in as president of the American Pharmacists Association, she worked tirelessly to advocate for the profession, including efforts to bring more women and minorities into its fold. Runge was inducted into the California Pharmacists Association’s Hall of Fame in 1997. After her death in 2014, the American Pharmacists Association established a scholarship in her name.”
Anna Louise James “was she the first Black woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy, but she was also one of the very first Black women to be a licensed pharmacist in the United States.” She ran her brother-in-law’s pharmacy after WWII broke out until 1967. “Over those 50 years, James and her pharmacy gained a reputation for generosity, finding ways to get people their medication even if they couldn’t always pay.”