BDSA Sees Slight Gain In Chemical Sales
FTC Warns Drug Makers On Quality Control Ads
Don't look for as sharp an increase in chemical sales this year as was rung up in 1960. The chemical industry's sales are expected to be higher, the Business and Defense Services Administration says, but "the gain may be small." Production is likely to in crease also, BDSA adds, but again the increase may be only slightly above 1960's record. And competition, both in U.S. and overseas markets, will be stiffer. In 1960 the chemical industry sold a record $27.7 billion worth of products, an increase of 9fA over 1959's volume. The industry currently is operating at 80 to 859Í of capacity, BDSA's Chemical and Rubber Division estimates. BDSA sees a higher growth rate for pharmaceuticals, some of the newer plastics, and many organic chemicals during 1961 than it does for the overall industry. Exports will be up, it adds, with organics, plastics materials, and some specialties leading the way. Imports, too, will be higher. Sulfuric acid output hit an all-time high of 17.0 million short tons of new acid in 1960, according to the Depart ment of Commerce agency, about V/< above 1959's total. But the industry operated at only slightly more than 75% of capacity, a lower level than in any year of the pást decade other than 1958. Although production is ex pected to increase again this year— and at a slightly higher rate—capacity will be approaching 25 million tons by the end of the year, so supplies will be more than adequate. Demand for chlorine and alkalies is expected to be "somewhat above the 1960 level." And higher output is forecast for industrial gases. Coal Tar Products. Output of coal tar intermediates was up an estimated 10% in 1960 to 9.3 billion pounds. BDSA predicts 1961 production will be "modestly ahead of 1960 levels." For one thing, larger supplies of ben zéne and naphthalene should be available to intermediates producers over the next 12 months. Both were in tight supply last year, reflecting the low level of coke oven production. Sales of pharmaceuticals, which háve been growing at an annual rate of 10% in recent years and hit an estimated $3 billion in 1960, should in crease "substantially" again this year, BDSA says.
The Federal Trade Commission is beginning to step up its drive against alleged false advertising claims of quality control in the drug industry. Speaking before the Pharmaceutical Advertising Club in New York, Fed eral Trade Commission Chairman Earl W. Kintner told drug advertisers that failure to cooperate with the FTC's crackdown could in vite "massive governmental controls." Admitting that "for many years the FTC has done little to police claims of quality control," Mr. Kintner assures drug advertisers that it is now moving with vigor in issuing formal complaints. Since FTC polices only drug advertising, its responsibility for maintaining effective quality control in drug production extends only to advertising claims. The FTC interprets any advertised claim of quality control to mean that the drug manufacturer employs an ade quate control systém. The FTC has no formal definition of an adequate control systém, Mr. Kintner says. However, it usually feels that an ade quate control systém is one that continuously uses all reasonable methods, procedures, and operations necessary to ensure uniformity, safety, and efficacy of pharmaceutical products. In order to ensure adequate control, the manufacturer mušt háve the facilities, procedures, qualified staíf, and know-how necessary to carry out quality control on a continuous basis, Mr. Kintner says. "Inattentions and callousness in quality control can only invite disaster for the entire industry/' h e warns. Full Story. Use of independent laboratory tests to support advertising claims and alleged failure to reveal all the facts about a drug are two other areas of drug advertising drawing more FTC attention. The manufacturer, ad vertising agency, scientist, and FTC are all responsible for the validity of scientific claims used in drug ads, Mr. Kintner emphasizes. Scientific claims mušt be backed by objective and accurate tests, he says. Mr. Kintner also urges drug adver tisers to include warning statements in their ads if the product is potentially harmful. "The FTC will judge ads by their total impression—a subtle qualification snowed under by blatant puŕfing does not make an ad legal," he stresses.
24
C&EN
JAN.
2 3,
1961
Glenn T. Seaborg Nobel laureate gets top AEC post
Seaborg Will Be First Scientist to Head AEC The newly designated chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, will be the first scientist to head the agency. Dr. Seaborg, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951, was Chancellor of the University of CaHfornia at Berkeley when President Kennedy announced his appointment last week. Except for a brief periód during 1958, when chemist Willard F. Libby served as acting chairman of AEC, that important scientific agency has always been headed by nonscientists. Dr. Seaborg succeeds John A. McCone, the CaHfornia businessman who took over the post in 1958. Serving with Dr. Seaborg will be .three other commissioners: Loren K. Olson, John S. Graham, and Róbert E. Wilson. Mr. McCone resigned from the commission as well as from the chairmanship. This leaves still one vacancy on the commission. Physicist John H. Williams resigned from the commission last Júne. No stranger to government science circles, Dr. Seaborg has been a member of President Eisenhower's Scien tific Advisory Committee. Between 1946 and 1950, Dr. Seaborg was on AEC's generál advisory committee. In 1959, he won the $50,000 Enrico Fermi Award, the Governmenťs highest honor in atomic science. Both the Fermi Award and the Nobel Prize (which he shared with Edwin M. McMillan) cited his discoveries in the field of transuranium elements.
