The AIHP Pharmacy & Society Speaker Series presents:
Influence and Cooperation: How British and US Pharmacopoeias shaped each other, 1720-1990 with Stuart Anderson.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
12:00 pm CDT
Registration is required, register for the virtual event here.
When work began on the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) in 1864, the chairman of the USP Committee of Revision, George B. Wood, travelled to London to meet members of the Royal College of Physicians. The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) had been approved by doctors in 1820, but the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy revised the 1840 USP and presented it to the Medical Committee. By 1850 US pharmacists had been invited to attend the Convention and join the Committee of Revision. But British doctors chose not to involve pharmacists. When it was published the BP was poorly received, and a second edition had to be hastily prepared with the help of Pharmaceutical Society and Apothecaries Hall staff.
Wood was only the first of several Americans to give evidence to the British authorities. In 1925 British pharmacists refused to help prepare the BP without a seat at the top table. A Committee of Enquiry established to examine its compilation, content and use received evidence in person from a number of key witnesses, one of whom was Professor E. Fullerton Cook, the then chairman of the USP Committee of Revision. Thereafter the USP Convention and BP Commission exchanged information with a view to keeping the pharmacopoeias in close agreement. In 1948 the Commission reported that it “had derived much assistance from the cordial and active co-operation of the USP Committee of Revision”.
This seminar explores the impact the pharmacopoeias of the two countries had on each other. It considers how the roles of doctors and pharmacists changed over time, how the views of stakeholders were represented, and how drugs suggested but not considered suitable for inclusion in the national pharmacopoeia were dealt with. It notes that the impact of the USP extended beyond Britain itself to law and practice in British Dominions and colonies.
About the speaker
Stuart Anderson is emeritus professor in the history of pharmacy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he was previously associate dean of studies. He has been researching and written about the history of pharmacy for over 30 years. He was the editor of Making Medicines: A Brief History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals (2005), and now edits the international journal Pharmaceutical Historian. His recent books include Pharmacy and Professionalization in the British Empire 1780-1970 (2021) and Pharmacopoeias, Drug Regulation and Empires: Making Medicines Official in Britain’s Imperial World 1618-1968 (2024). He is currently completing a four-volume collection of primary source material on the history of 19th century British pharmacy and pharmaceuticals for Routledge, and is preparing a new book on pharmacy, medicines, and religion. He is a recipient of the Leslie Matthews Medal, the Schelenz Plakette and the George Urdang Medal and a Fellow of both the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal Historical Society.
