Proprietary Medicines and
The Crisis of American Pharmacy, 1918-1942

Joseph M. Gabriel, PhD, Florida State University

Abstract: In the four decades before World War II pharmacists increasingly dispensed mass-produced drugs sold under brand names instead of compounding prescriptions. This talk describes how the increased sale of proprietary medicines led to a professional crisis among pharmacists related to their loss of autonomy, economic instability, and increased legal jeopardy. It will also discuss how pharmacists responded to this troubling situation.

Joseph M. Gabriel is Associate Professor of History in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at Florida State University. He is the author of Medical Monopoly: Intellectual Property Rights and the Origins of the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry (University of Chicago Press, 2014) and the co-editor of Drugs on the Page: Pharmacopeias and Healing Knowledge in the Early Modern Atlantic World (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019).  Among other topics, he has written on the history of drugs and pharmaceuticals, the cultural history of addiction, and the history of clinical drug trials. He lives in Tallahassee.