History of Pharmacy

President Obama launches the “Precision Medicine Initiative” proposing customization of healthcare, with medical decisions, practices, and/or products being tailored to the individual patient. The project aims to collect genetic and health data from one million subjects.

Maine becomes the last state in the U.S. to allow pharmacists to administer immunizations directly to patients.

Dr. Arcelia Johnson-Fannin is the founding Dean of the Feik School of Pharmacy at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas becoming the first woman and only African American female to be founding dean at two new pharmacy schools.  In 1997, Dr. Johnson-Fannin was selected to head the development of the pharmacy program at Hampton University in Virginia.

Congress passes the Hatch-Waxman Act, which makes it easier for generic drugs to be approved for sale while giving pharmaceutical companies longer market exclusivity to encourage continued drug research and development.

Merck Sharp & Dohme introduces the first Hepatitis B vaccine.

Mary Munson Runge is the first African American and the first woman to be elected president of the American Pharmacists Association.

Beta-blockers, a type of medicine used to treat high blood pressure and heart problems, begin to be used.

Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati develops an oral polio vaccine.

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) approves a proposal requiring the completion of five years of academic training to earn a degree in pharmacy.

Lederle Laboratories develops methotrexate, one of the earliest anti-cancer agents with the ability to destroy cancer cells.

Selman Waksman and his colleagues at Rutgers University discover streptomycin, the first antibiotic not derived from fungi or bacteria but rather from an intermediate form of life, the actinomycetes.

Formation of the American Society of Hospital (now Health-System) Pharmacists, or ASHP, representing the interests of hospital pharmacists.

Oxford University scientists Howard Florey, Ernest Chain and Norman Heatley successfully develop penicillin in medicinal form; by 1943, a number of U.S. pharmaceutical companies were mass-producing purified penicillin to meet the military’s needs during World War II.

Canadian scientists Frederick Banting, Charles Best, John Macleod, and James Collip isolate insulin, which Eli Lilly and Company introduces commercially the following year.

Formation of Kappa Epsilon, America’s first pharmacy sorority, created to represent the interests of women pharmacists. Kappa Epsilon is still active today as an organization accepting both women and men.

Leo Vinton Butts is the first known African-American graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy

Anna Louise James is the first Black woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy, and is was also one of the first Black women to be a licensed pharmacist in the United States.

Paul Ehrlich discovers arsphenamine (Compound 606), the first effective treatment against syphilis, for which he is awarded a Nobel Prize the following year.

German pharmacist Felix Hoffmann successfully synthesizes salicylic acid, or aspirin, for commercial sale, which becomes the most widely used drug in modern times.

Julia Pearl Hughes (Coleman-Robinson) is the first African American woman to successfully own and operate her own drugstore, opening Hughes Pharmacy in South Philadelphia.

Robert H Carter becomes the first African American registered pharmacist in the state of Massachusetts in 1886. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Pharmaceutical Association, as well as a member of Booker T. Washington’s National Negro Business League and the Boston Druggist Association.

Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local Atlanta pharmacist, creates a syrup which is sold at nearby Jacob’s Pharmacy. The syrup is an instant hit and, when combined with carbonated water, sells for five cents a glass. This drink is the original Coca-Cola.

Louis Pasteur develops the rabies vaccine.

Founding of the American Pharmaceutical (now Pharmacists) Association, or APhA, the first-established national professional society of American pharmacists.

Dr. James McCune Smith opens the first black-owned pharmacy in the US. Dr. Smith was also the first African American to earn a medical degree.

Elias Durand becomes one of the first pharmacists to introduce the soda fountain at his shop. The soda fountain became a hallmark of the American drugstore from the 1860s to the 1950s.

Establishment of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, America’s first school of pharmacy.

Creation of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which offers a system of standards to be used as a reference guide for professional pharmacists.

English physician John Ferriar discovers the first known heart medicine.

The Philadelphia Hospital, Colonial America’s first hospital, opens the first hospital pharmacy.

The Bubonic plague (also known as the Black Death) wipes out one third of the world’s population and leads to a series of religious, social and economic upheavals that would have profound effects on the course of European history.

Pharmacy and Medicine are officially separated. King Frederick II, a powerful European ruler, issues an edict for the first time in Europe completely separating the professions of physicians and pharmacists, and issuing professional regulations for both.