The year 1939 was a period of many problems to the drug, chemical, and related industries — not so much, perhaps, by reason of current difficulties as because of expected situations to be faced in 1949. The two chief difficulties in prospect were conformity with the provisions of the new Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act becoming effective Jan. 1, 1949, and shortages in raw materials on account of the European hostilities. The problems of 1939 were to prepare for these difficulties.
The new Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was signed by President Roosevelt on June 25, 1938, to become effective one year later. Certain of the provisions of the new law, however, particularly those dealing with the affirmative labeling of drug products and the certification of coal tar colors used in cosmetics, demanded the issuance of interpretive regulations and a considerable amount of readjustment of manufacturing operations, and it was a practical impossibility to complete this work within the year prescribed. To meet this situation Congress enacted the Lea bill in June 1939 postponing the effective date of these provisions of the new law until Jan. 1, 1940. By that time the labels of virtually every drug product on the American market must be revised, the names of some products must be changed, and some manufacturing operations must be altered to satisfy the new law. This has been a task of considerable magnitude especially to the manufacturer of a substantial list of products.
The outbreak of hostilities in Europe has had a considerable effect on commerce in drugs and the longer the war continues the greater will be the problems it presents. Because no country in the world is self-sufficient for the drugs and chemicals it needs to prevent and treat disease, a war in any hemisphere immediately affects the normal supply of these, increases their cost, and sometimes renders them entirely unobtainable. The extent to which a country feels the pinch depends, first, on the extent to which it is dependent upon foreign sources of supply, and, second, upon how many countries are involved in the war.
In the present conflict the United States finds itself in a much better position with regard to chemicals than it was in 1914 but this is not true with regard to botanicals. The chemical industry in this country was of little importance before the last World War but its development during the past twenty-five years has made us largely independent of foreign sources of supply. The United States, however, because of high labor costs has never cultivated botanical drugs on a scale to meet its own requirements — with the exception of digitalis and a few other drugs — and the area affected by the war, including Hungary, Poland, Germany, old Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, are the sources of supply of a great list of botanicals. The outbreak of the hostilities came at a very inopportune time as the new crop of botanicals usually arrives in the United States during the last quarter of the year. Prices of raw materials are fluctuating to such an extent that leading drug and chemical houses have discontinued the issuance of monthly price lists.
Because druggists will have to pay increased prices for many of the drugs they buy — and will find it necessary to pass along these price advances to customers — they should be familiar with the reasons why these costs have gone up.
In the first place, the countries involved were mobilizing long before the actual outbreak of the war and men who would normally be working in the fields were in military service and all crops have therefore suffered.
Poland, the country hardest bit by the war thus far, supplied few drugs to this country. It was one of the chief sources of lycopodium and much of this drug was shipped from the harbor of Danzig. Poland also exported some ergot. This trade has been entirely cut off and lycopodium has jumped in price from $1.20 to $3.50 a pound.
Commercial shipping with the belligerent countries — England, France and Germany — is at a virtual standstill and even that of neutral countries, such as Italy, Holland, Belgium, Spain and Russia, is under great pressure and both cost of transportation and war risk insurance have increased materially. On quinine salts these increased costs amount to four cents an ounce.
Another factor tending to increase the cost of drugs is the realization that normal production in many European countries next year probably will be impossible and, therefore, stocks on hand will be worth still more.
Every effort has been made to prevent speculation in drugs and chemicals, however, most suppliers refusing to accept orders for more than normal requirements, and turning down orders from other than regular customers.
Among the botanicals most affected are ergot, lavender flowers, orange peel, cascara, cantharides, camomile, malva flowers, buchu, henna, peppermint, gentian, arnica flowers, senega, anise, juniper berries, poppy, fennel, and gum arabic, asafetida, myrrh and benzoin.
Mercury and its salts lead the chemicals which have increased in price. European mercury in the past six months has been increased in price from $75 to $120 per 76-lb. flask; ammoniated mercury from $1.89 to $2.47 a pound; mercuric chloride from $1.32 to $1.89 a pound; calomel from $1.52 to $2.45 a pound; yellow mercuric oxide from $2.03 to $2.78 a pound, and other salts have also felt the increase. Tartaric acids and all tartrates, bismuth salts, iodine, and iodides, terpin hydrate, the glycerophosphates and tartar emetic have likewise increased in price. Adeps lanae, strychnine salts, cod-liver oil, agar, and cocoa butter are more costly.
Many of the alkaloids have been advanced in price rather materially. Atropine has been raised in the past six months from $4.50 to $7.00 an ounce; atropine sulfate from $2.60 to $4.00 an ounce; and strychnine, pilocarpine and yohimbine hydrochloride have advanced to a lesser degree.
When the 'undeclared war' between China and Japan seriously affected the importation of Ephedra from China, research chemists in the United States redoubled their efforts to produce a synthetic ephedrine and the success which crowned their work has made this country independent of foreign supplies of the natural drug. The current European war may be expected to stimulate chemical and pharmaceutical research in an attempt to provide satisfactory substitutes for those raw materials most affected.
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