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H I STO R I C A L F I G U R E S
BLAH
WHO WERE ALSO PHARMACISTS
Isaac Newton
Contribution:
Theories of
gravity, relativity.
A good student
from England’s
Grantham
Grammar
School,
young Newton served as an
apprentice in an apothecary
shop in Woolsthorpe. He lived
at the shop and for a short
time was even engaged to the
shop owner’s daughter. The
job and the romance ended
when Newton went off to
Cambridge University and
started his brilliant career in
mathematics and physics. We
can only wonder what kind of a
druggist he would have been.
events that
shaped
pharmacy
A
Twenty-five key events
in the history of
pharmacy in Australia ...
Where to start? Even in
the 13 years our editor,
Chris Brooker, has been
involved in community
pharmacy, there have
been a vast number of
vital developments not
included here in the
interests of achieving a
balance across time, and
mix of events.
22 | July 2014 | PharmacyNews
look at issues since the
turn of the millennium
brings up important
developments such as
the launch of Pfizer Direct, and the
subsequent threat (not yet realised)
to our drug distribution network,
in 2011; the Galbally Report into
drug scheduling and advertising in
late 2000; the growth of discount
pharmacies; or the implementation
of national professional standards
— culminating in the establishment
of AHPRA in 2010.
We have steered away from
mentioning too much about
drug developments — launches,
schedule changes etc, as there have
simply been too many, so we’ve
focused primarily on legislative,
organisational and political
‘big-ticket’ items.
1788
The beginning of
Australian pharmacy
No specialist apothecaries came on
the First Fleet. Surgeon General
John White and naval doctors were
responsible for all medical care.
Only 17 drug preparations were
on the basic drug list of the fleet.
In early Sydney, doctors such as
William Redfern ran ‘dispensing
shops’ supplying medicines, often to
private patients from hospital stores.
The first medical board, set up in
1820, examined pharmacists as well
as doctors.
Our oldest
pharmacy
Hatton & Laws, on
the corner of Charles
and Brisbane Streets
in Launceston, was
founded in 1825
by Michael Bates of
Halifax, Yorkshire.
It was moved to its
current location in
1848 by a Mr Towers,
its second owner. In
1853, it was taken
over by JD Hatton, an
apprentice pharmacist
from Bristol, UK,
and Horace Laws,
an apprentice from
Yarmouth, in 1853.
The current owners,
who bought the
pharmacy in 2011, saw
value in the original
name and its history.
They currently do
naturopathic dispensing
together with modern
compounding
pharmacy techniques
and services.
1820s
First pharmacies
In 1820, John Tawell, who opened Sydney’s
first specialist chemist shop, was granted
a licence to practise as an apothecary,
and to compound and dispense medicines.
Convicted for forgery, he had been a
travelling medicine salesman in England.
His business prospered, and he retired to
London in 1845 (and was later hung for
poisoning his mistress).
In 1825, Michael Bates, a Yorkshireman,
who started a pharmacy in Launceston,
opened what is probably the first pharmacy
in Australia to be opened by a qualified
pharmacist. From Halifax, he opened
his ‘chemists and druggists’ store — the
‘Corner Pharmacy’ still trading as Hatton
& Laws Pharmacy (see box).
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A murderous
beginning
Birth of
Fauldings
The first European medical
professional on Australian
soil was an apothecary,
the murderous Jeronimus
Cornelisz, a bankrupt
pharmacist and religious
heretic from Haarlem in the
Netherlands.
Serving as undermerchant on the ship
Batavia, which crashed on
the Houtmans Abrolhos
(islands) off the WA coast
in 1629.
Cornelisz led the famous
mutiny, and instigated a
reign of terror responsible
for around 110 muders.
Australian wholesaling
legend Fauldings began
quite humbly when
Francis Hardy Faulding
(pictured), son of a
Yorkshire surgeon, moved
from Sydney to found a
pharmacy in Rundle St,
Adelaide.
Three years later
he became SA’s first
wholesaler, with his
premises expanding to
a two-story warehouse
(Joseph Bosisto
was among his early
employees).
After his death in
1868, his business partner,
Luther Scammell, who
had opened his own
Adelaide pharmacy in
1861, went on to be a
leader in wholesaling
nationwide, with offices
set up in Perth in 1890
and Sydney in 1918.
The company was
bought by Mayne in 2001,
and is now part of the
Symbion group.
1870s-1890s
Proper regulation
1864
British Pharmacopoeia
first published.
1844
First Australian society
The Pharmaceutical Society of
NSW was founded by, among others,
Ambrose Foss, who had bought John
Tawell’s business in 1828.
This was the first such society
founded outside England in the
English-speaking world, and
was modelled on the English
pharmaceutical society, founded in
1842 by Jacob Bell and colleagues
to lobby for legislation to control
the registration of chemists, and
the control of the sale of poisons.
Unfortunately, the NSW society
did not see out the 1840s, but was
reformed in 1876.
This resulted from the
amalgamation of the
pharmacopoeias of London,
Edinburgh and Dublin.
It quickly became the
authoritative collection of
standards for medicines in the
United Kingdom, and its standards
legally enforceable in the UK
and most of the Commonwealth,
including Australia.
The first edition of Martindales
appeared in 1883 and was
immediately successful because
it was ahead of the needs of
pharmacists at the time.
William Martindale was a
practising pharmacist with a
“flair for the scientific aspects
of his profession”. His guide
provided information on drugs
and galenicals to supplement that
contained in the BP.
Partially as a result of the influx of
unlicensed and unqualified medical
practitioners attracted to Gold Rush
towns, pressure grew for regulation
of pharmacists — to bring order to
selling of poisons and recognition of
the proper training and education
of pharmacists.
The 1870s saw the passing of
poison licensing acts in each state
(Tasmania had got in first in 1867).
This was accompanied by the
formation of state Pharmaceutical
Societies, the very same bodies that
exist today.
Victoria, perhaps especially
affected by ‘gold fever’, was the
first, in 1857, then NSW in 1876,
with WA the last, in 1892.
These bodies then lobbied for
pharmacy acts to grant registration
and recognise properly trained
practitioners. Victoria again led
the way, in 1876, most of the other
states passed an act in the 1880s or
’90s, with Tasmania the last — in
1908.
Did you know?
P H A R M A C Y
The first official
pharmacopoeia
was the Ricettario
Florentino, issued
in Florence in
1498.
In 1529,
Nuremburg,
Germany, became
first community
to impose a
legally binding
formulary on all
apothecaries.
F A C T
B I T E
1911
Formation of PDL
Pharmaceutical Defence Ltd was founded off the
back of a single court case, when Echuca, Victoria,
pharmacist Francis Gough was sued for damages
by a farmer following an alleged poisoning.
The farmer, William Hilton, claimed damages
and was awarded £200, plus costs. Other chemists
were alarmed that any alleged dispensing
error could ruin them. Led by Charles Butchers
(pictured), they raised the money for Gough by
June 1911, and by September, PDL was formed.
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CoverStory
1927-28
1930s
1977
Pharmacy Guild formed
Boots & all
PSA goes national
The increasing need for a more
commercial and industrial
organisation to represent the
needs of pharmacy businesses led
to the creation of the Pharmacy
Guild of Australia. The idea for
a Guild was heavily discussed at
the Australasian Pharmaceutical
Conference in 1926, and the move
was largely driven by Victorian
pharmacists, and the firebrand
William ‘Methane’ Davies.
At the 1928 conference,
delegates deemed it desirable
to form a Guild, urging “the
respective state pharmaceutical
organisations ... take immediate
steps to promote the organisation of
the Guild”.
AW McGibbony, of Victoria,
was elected first national
president in September 1928. In
an open letter, he described “a
strong pharmaceutical business
organisation” as “an essential part
of the pharmacists’ armament”.
Membership grew fairly quickly
— from 512 in 1928 to 1414 in
1932. Early successes included
work on sales tax, standardised
tariffs for dispensing charges,
and establishing ‘chemist-only’
contracts.
The chain store menace,
which had played a role in the
formation of the Guild, reached
its peak in the 1930s. In 1935
and 1936, English chain Boots,
which already had 1000 British
stores, was seeking a foothold
into Australia and New Zealand
pharmacy.
Charles Butchers led the
Guild campaign, claiming
at a parliamentary hearing
the chains were “unsocial,
uneconomic, leading to
monopolies”.
The Guild launched a fullscale lobbying effort against
the threat. Victorian Premier,
Albert Dunstan said it was
undesirable to encourage
chains for the sake of cheaper
medicines, and less services.
However, a NSW inquiry
recommended in favour of Boots
in 1937, a situation not reversed
till 1939, and the following
year the states’ Pharmacy
Amendment Act prohibited the
spread of ‘company pharmacy’.
Five state Pharmaceutical
Societies (minus WA)
joined together to form
a federal body: the
Pharmaceutical Society
of Australia.
Hostility between
the state bodies had
previously hampered
moves for unification.
The state societies would
retain much autonomy for
many years, but vowed
to accept directions from
the national council.
WA, unable to join due
to its constitutional role
as administrator of its
state pharmacy act, had
observer status. It would
eventually join as a
corporate body in 1997.
1951
Women in pharmacy
The first Australian-born woman
to gain pharmacy registration was
probably Caroline Copp in 1880.
While Anne Bickford had taken
over her husbands’ Adelaide
pharmacy upon his death in 1850,
and ran it for many years with her
son Harry, a qualified chemist, AM
Bickford & Sons would eventually
develop into a wholesaling business.
In 1951, the first congress
of the first national pharmacy
women’s organisation was held: the
Combined Women’s Pharmacists’
Association. Miss EA Everett
(pictured), of Queensland, was the
first president.
Progress would remain slow.
Margaret Bickle, a NSW Guild
branch committee member since
1970, would be the Guild’s first
female national councillor in 1982.
Even in the 1977, about 60%
of pharmacy undergraduates
were female, a situation that has
remained constant, and while
progress in leadership has been
made, as of 2014, neither of our
leading pharmacy organisations
have had a female in he top job.
1948
The PBS kicks off
Pharmacy
Guild national
presidents
Alexander McGibbony 1928-47
Sir Eric Scott 1947-71
Alan Russell 1971-82
Jim Matthews 1982-90
Colin Johns 1990-94
John Bronger 1994-2005
Kos Sclavos 2005-13
George Tambassis 2013 - present
Former Prime Minister,
Ben Chifley
The Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme, our lauded (and by modern
politicians, derided) medication
reimbursement scheme, began on 1
June 1948.
The 140 drugs listed on the
initial PBS were provided free,
as part of a Chifley Government
plan to implement an Australian
NHS (much of which was ruled
unconstitutional by the High Court)
There was opposition to the
move from the British Medical
Association, which still represented
Australian doctors at this time.
The first co-payments for PBS
medicines were introduced in 1960.
From 1954, medicines could only be
added after approval by the PBAC.
Early 1980s
Computing in pharmacy
Computerisation began to impact on
the profession in the early ’80s. In
1985, the Guild endorsed Foundation
Computers, the forerunner of
Pharmacy Computers of Australia
and Fred Health.
Prescription processing, financial
management and instant access to
patient records were among the key
usages in those pre-internet days.
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1990
The first Agreement
1989
The CAPS war
CAPS (the Community and
Pharmacy Support Group) was an
activist association that sprung
up after years of increasing
hostility between pharmacists
and the Hawke Government, with,
as usual, PBS reimbursement
as the key sticking point, along
with government plans to push
pharmacy amalgamations.
Working independently of,
and even sometimes in opposition
to, the Guild, CAPS engaged in
public dissent: collecting petitions,
engaging in street protests and
pharmacy closedowns.
In the midst of the war,
the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Remuneration Tribunal decided to
cut the NHS dispensing fee by 23%.
Guild president Jim Matthews
said the decision was a “holocaust”
and “the end of community
pharmacy as we know it”, while
2000 female pharmacists protested
at Parliament House talking of the
“crucifixion” of pharmacy. PBS
Minister Peter Staples talked of
“Rambo pharmacists”.
Guild president,
Jim Matthews
Following the Hawke Government’s
re-election in 1990, the Guild felt
it had to negotiate an agreement,
rather than continue the “war”,
especially in the face of hostile
media reporting, which many in
pharmacy believed was government
engineered (despite polls
showing 83% approval ratings for
pharmacy).
In July 1990, the first
Community Pharmacy Agreement
was signed. In return for
an 18-month cut in overall
remuneration, pharmacy gained
”significant guarantees” in
ownership and business.
However, it was agreed that 700
pharmacies would close.
1998
A matter of quality
Increasing demand for accountability and
professional standards among pharmacy
would inevitably lead to a formal
accreditation process, and this came
with the now-ubiquitous Quality Care
Pharmacy Program (QCPP), launched at
APP 1998.
The Third Community Pharmacy
Agreement, signed in 2000, saw incentive
payments ($10,000), and formalised
arrangements where access to Guild
programs could only be accessed by QCPPaccredited pharmacies. Many pharmacies
used the accreditation process as a way of
assessing their procedures, organisation,
layout and systems, and it paved the way
for the greater emphasis on professional
services that lay ahead.
In October 2000, just 650 pharmacies
were QCPP-accredited nationwide. By
August 2003, the program passed 3000
pharmacies accredited. It was the first
national pharmacy standards program in
any country.
1995
First professional
service payments
H I STO R I C A L F I G U R E S
BLAH
WHO WERE ALSO PHARMACISTS
Henrik Ibsen
Contribution: Often referred
to as ‘the father of realism’.
The great Norwegian
playwright joins the ranks of those
who spent their teen years surrounded
by drugs. In 1844, at the age of 16, he
became an apprentice in the coastal
town of Grimstad’s pharmacy. After
his apprenticeship, Ibsen worked as
an assistant pharmacist, leaving in
1850 to study in Christiana (now Oslo).
The second Guild–Government
(Community Pharmacy) Agreement
laid out the initial framework for
professional services payments.
A success for recently elected
Guild president John Bronger (who
had taken over from Colin Johns
the previous year), the 2nd CPA
saw a “significant increase” in the
dispensing fee, through the addition
of an administration fee to partially
compensate pharmacists for the
required clerical/administrative work.
It also saw a new professional fee
structure for medication management
in “special areas of practice” (such as
nursing homes).
For the first time, financial
recognition was given to the wider
role of pharmacists.
2000
Wilkinson Review
The COAG National Competitions
Policy Review of Pharmacy
Regulations, chaired by eminent
pharmacist Warwick Wilkinson
(pictured recently), while
recommending removal of some
restrictions, confirmed the “net
public benefit from the value-added
dimension of pharmacy ownership
of pharmacies” that outweighed
the costs of removing these
restrictions.
This was confirmed by a
subsequent joint government
working party. The positive
outcome was a notable example of
Guild/PSA co-operation.
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2001
2004
Keeping it in the
home, the HMR saga.
The Home Medicines Review
program kicked off in 2001, but
would struggle with low uptake
for a number of years.
However, after incentives for
participating pharmacists and
GPs were revised, it eventually
blossomed — perhaps too well —
amid claims of systemic rorting
leading to highly controversial
caps being placed on the program
earlier this year. For many
pharmacists, it offers an example
of a professional income stream
potentially untied to an actual
pharmacy.
Eucalyptus Oil
Sydney Aboriginals were observed
by Surgeon General John White
collecting dark gum exuding from
the red gum, Eucalyptus resinifera.
Dried and dissolved in Spirit of
Wine employed as an astringent
treatment for dysentery — called
Tincture of Kino.
White also distilled oil from
leaves of the Sydney peppermint
Eucalyptus piperita, and Governor
Philip sent examples to the UK
for testing for a possible export
industry.
Not until 1852, when Yorkshire
pharmacist, Joseph Bosisto, was
the oil extracted commercially (at
Dandenong Creek, in Victoria). His
oil won prizes at 17 international
competitions, and was added to
the British pharmacopoeia, the
first Australian developed product
to do so.
28 | July 2014 | PharmacyNews
Supermarket threat
averted — or is it?
2003
All about the numbers
As late as the 1960s, there was
debate over whether pharmacy
should become a mandated
university degree-based profession.
In 1965, Victoria, WA and Tasmania
were without a degree course in
pharmacy
The first actual independent
Faculty of Pharmacy was
established at the University
of Sydney in 2000, and it long
remained the possession of some of
the older sandstone universities.
However, by the early 2000s,
concern was rife about a looming
shortage of trained pharmacists.
A 2003 report suggested the
annual supply of pharmacist
graduates, added to wastage form
the profession, would lead to
significant shortages.
Since then, of course, the
situation had flipped full-circle,
with a current oversupply due to
substantially increased graduate
numbers from the expanded
number of pharmacy schools.
Australia’s supermarket giants
have long cast loving glances
towards our community
pharmacy sector. Over the years,
there have been a number of
attempts to ‘muscle in’ and have
ownership and/or location rules
changed.
One of the most concerted
threats came in the early 2000s,
when Woolworths chief Roger
Corbett launched a campaign
to change ownership and break
what he said was the pharmacy
“gerrymander”, which he
said was driving up prices for
consumers.
Fortunately, then Prime
Minister John Howard
was a friend of community
pharmacy, and in 2004,
Health Minister Tony Abbott
H I STO R I C A L F I G U R E S
BLAH
WHO WERE ALSO PHARMACISTS
Friedrich Serturner
Contribution: Discovered Morphine
As a pharmacist’s assistant, Serturner
was the first chemist to separate morphium (morphine) from
opium. In the 18th century opium was a widely available and
addictive drug (and as you may have heard it wasn’t only
popular for its medical properties). Although his discovery was
made in 1805, it wasn’t until after 1815 that morphine became
widely available for use. It is due to Serturner’s discovery and
continuous research into the effects of morphine that we are
able to harness its pain relief qualities today.
delivered a ministerial
determination preventing
supermarket co-location to
“protect traditional community
pharmacy” — since renewed by
subsequent ministers.
Of course, the downscheduling of a range of key
categories has already given
supermarkets a slice of the
pharmacy pie anyway.
2005
Ensuring the supply chain
As well as formalising the
initial ministerial co-location
determination, one of the key
successes of the Fourth Community
Pharmacy Agreement was the
establishment of the Community
Service Obligation (CSO) as a
means of locking in the full-line
wholesale chain.
To access CSO funds,
wholesalers had to guarantee fullline drug supply.
The biggest threat to the CSO
came in 2011, when the largest
pharmaceutical company, Pfizer,
announced it was setting up its
own distribution arm — Pfizer
Direct — to circumvent traditional
wholesalers, just prior to the
patent expiry on a couple of the
company’s biggest earning incomes.
After much initial anger from
pharmacists, the scheme continues,
but has yet to be replicated by
another manufacturer.
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To comment go to www.pharmacynews.com.au
The future is bright for Pharmacy News
In our next issue we will present the most influential
people in pharmacy, as part of our look at pharmacy
today. The in November, we turn to the future of
pharmacy - and unveil the new look Pharmacy News.
2013
Accelerated
price disclosure
2011
Pharmacists were back out on the
streets last year after the Rudd
Government decided to ignore
its agreements with pharmacy
and the pharmaceutical industry,
and dramatically speed up price
disclosure, with possibly devastating
result to the income of many
pharmacies.
As we saw on page 12, the
arguments over this move are still
very much with us. And pharmacy
is still to hear more than platitudes
from either side of politics on its
impact, despite all evidence (but that
emanating from the Department of
Health) indicating PBS growth to be
slowing down, and in some instances,
actually reversing.
Professional Practice Incentives
The big announcement of APP 2011 was the launch of the Professional
Practice Incentives scheme, where registered pharmacies could receive
payment for six key areas of expanded pharmacy practice: Dose
Administration Aids (DAAs), Clinical Interventions, Staged Supply,
Primary Health Care, Community Services Support and Working With
Others. Funded from the 2010 5CPA, the scheme was rapidly embraced by
pharmacies
Payments for conducting appointment-based Medicines Checks and
Diabetes Medicines Checks were also announced at the conference.
2008
E-health kicks off
2006
Price disclosure
In 2002, the Federal Government’s
Intergenerational Report spooked
many with its predictions of the
massively rising costs of healthcare
due to our ageing population. After
many years of rapid PBS expansion
due to ‘blockbuster’ medications
such as statins, governments and
bureaucrats of all stripes believed
PBS costs needed to be reined in.
In 2006, after months of
wrangling, the Guild signed off on
the biggest structural changes to
the PBS since 1960, agreeing to a
system whereby generic medicine
prices would be lowered, with full
transparency of medicines pricing.
The initial 12.5% equivalence
drop when a drug was off-patent,
agreed to in 2006 has, of course,
been dramatically superseded over
subsequent years.
E-health has proved one of the
most incredibly troublesome
areas of Australian healthcare,
as the interminably slow progress
of the now-reforming NEHTA has
demonstrated.
However, pharmacy has a
proud history in leading the
way in the introduction and
implementation of actual,
working e-health initiatives.
In 2008, ScriptX, an electronic
gateway to facilitate national
electronic prescribing, was
launched.
The same year saw the debut
of MedsIndex, a scheme to
improve medication compliance
by people with diabetes, and the
Find-A-Pharmacy website.
The Guild and Fred Health
have continued to remain ahead
of the pack since then, regularly
launching new technology
to improve e-health and
connectivity.
Did you know?
P H A R M A C Y
F A C T
B I T E
The Bowl of Hygieia is one of the symbols of
pharmacy. Hygieia was the Greek goddess of
hygiene, and the daughter of Aesculapius, the God
of Medicine. Aesculapius’ symbol is his rod, with
a snaketwined around it; correspondingly, Hygieia’s
symbol is a cup or chalice with a snake twined around
its stem and poised above it. The bowl of Hygieia has
been used as a symbol of the pharmacy professional at
least as far back as 1796, when it was used on a coin
minted for the Parisian Society of Pharmacy.
References:
Martyn S Goddard, ‘How the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Began’,
MJA 201(1), 7 July 2014
Geoff Miller , ‘Pharmacy History’, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
website (www.psa.org.au/about/pharmacy-history)
Stephen G Greenwood; Ready, Prepared! The
History of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia,
from 1928 to 2008. APP Co, 2008.
Australian Journal of Pharmacy: Guild 80th
Anniversary Special Issue, Sept 2008
Pharmacy Trade/Pharmacy News issues from
1967-2014
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