Pharmaceutical Industry

PHARMACOLOGY HAS BEEN practiced around the world since the first time a plant or other natural remedy was applied to a human ailment. Major modern pharmaceutical companies are the fruit of advances in the 20th century in biology, chemistry, genetics, manufacturing processes, technology, scientific advances and business practices. The advance have made modern pharmaceuticals products the great deliverer from disease.

The approximately 200 pharmaceutical companies around the world are commercial businesses that promote the discovery, development, and marketing of new medicines. Physicians who prescribe medicines and druggists at local drug [Page 426]stores are the end of their distribution system. Many are huge retail chains, others are owned by a single entrepreneur. The pharmaceutical companies are the makers of the drugs and other therapeutic products used in ...