Pharmaceutical Progress Examined Λ STAKK HI: PORT
I N S P E C T I O N and introspection were the keynotes of the addresses delivered at t h e meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association held in N"ew York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Dec. 5 to 8. T h e registration of 599 who attended t h e meeting heard experts from various fields concerned with pharmaceuticals discuss t h e progress as well as the shortcomings of the drug manufacturing industry. This theme of self examination got under way with the opening address of t h e meeting which was delivered by t h e president of Α Ρ Μ Α , T . G. K l u m p p , president of Winthrop-Stearns, inc. D r . K l u m p p lauded the manner in which t h e American pharmaceutical industry has acquired what h e termed "the knack of research." By so doing, he continued, t h e Americans have taken the lead in this field away from the Germans, whom he douhts will ever recapture it. This change in leadership was not due to the military successes of the Americans in the recent war. lie pointed out. Actually, he said, "we were ahead of the Germans in pharmaceutical research when the Germans were winning the war and the allies losing it." The president of the Α Ρ Μ Α tempered these early remarks with the statement t h a t "we and t h e medical profession have failed to show t h e public why they can not expect a surgical operation for the price of a haircut." He claimed t h a t both the public a n d the medical profession still regard the price of drugs as high. With t h i s situation in mind D r . Klumpp posed t h e rhetorical question of "whether or n o t it is good public policy for pharmaceutical houses to vie with one another in displays
of affluence." Although t h e speaker admitted the economic justification of house organs, samples, and first class advertising, he claimed there is a real danger t h a t competition in these m a t t e r s will be p u t a t a level t h a t will b e regarded as wasteful by the medical profession. T h e T r a d e - M a r k Act of 1946 c a m e in for its share of a t t e n t i o n in the address d e livered b y W . J . Derenberg, t r a d e - m a r k counsel of the United States Patent Office. Since the passage of this act, Dr. D e r e n berg declared, pharmaceutical m a n u facturers a n d business a n d industry in general have become acutely t r a d e - m a r k conscious. The act, though hailed b y many as a decisive step forward in t h e protection of registered t r a d e - m a r k s i n cludes provisions t h a t might give rise to a conflict between the private rights of the trade-mark owners and t h e rights of the general public, he said. P r o m i n e n t a m o n g the dangers t h a t might arise froin the act, Dr. Derenberg said, is t h a t in which a pharmaceutical mark might be classified as a "common o r usual" name under t h e provisions of t h e Food, Drug, a n d Cosmetic Act. It is possible, he continued, that the name of a formerly p a t e n t e d article which h a s b e come a common descriptive t e r m m a y b e canceled at any time. T h e Lan h a m Act, as it now s t a n d s , would not allow t h e trade-mark owner t o proceed against a person who makes a careless use of a registered t r a d e - m a r k . This would mean, Dr. Derenberg contended, t h a t t h e mark in question would lose its trade-mark significance. T h e increasing world dependence on the American drug industry w a s t h e
F. A. Calderone9 chief technical liaison officer and director of the IVew York office of WHO; L, H. Baiter, secretary-general, World Medical Associa tion; and T. G. Klutnpp, president of Winthrop-Stearns and of ΑΡΜΑ
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subject of the address b y T . W . E>ela h a n t y of the chemical and health products branch of the Office of International Trade. T h e speaker predicted t h a t "the overseas sales of drug products should a m o u n t to $200 million this y e a r . T h i s figure, h e pointed out, represents a tenfold increase over the export figure of 1938 a n d is equivalent to one half the o u t p u t at tHat time. Aspiring nationalism has been a deter rent t o expansion, according to t h e speaker. There is scarcely a country in the world which has not sought to acquire the American 'know-how" through license, investment, enterprise, o r alliance in cooperative enterprise, said Delahanty. In view of this, the speaker praised the far sightedness of those companies which h a v e established subsidiary international corpo rations, whose profits in m a n y instances exceed t h a t of the parent organizations. These units, he said, h a v e been re sponsible for most of our expo'rts, a n d through overseas purchases a n d produc tion h a v e made critical dollars more avail able. Such types of international enter prise serve as a very favorable contrast to the "opportunist" organizations which engage in foreign trade without contribut ing a n y t h i n g to the health education, service, and economic development of these international markets, M r . Dela hanty concluded. .-itcards The award of distinction of the ΛΡΛΙΑ was presented this year t o t h e National I n s t i t u t e s of Health at special dinner meeting during the three-day conclave in New York. The presentation of the award was made by E r n e s t E . Icons, president-elect of the American Medical Association, to Rollo E . D y e r who accepted on behalf of t h e National I n s t i t u t e s of Health, of which h e is the director. In his acceptance speech, D r . D y e r traced the history of his organization from its first beginning a s a p a r t of the Public Health Service, in the single room laboratory of Joseph J . Kinyoun 60 years ago. D r . Kinyoun, a former student of Koch and Pasteur in E u r o p e , worked in this laboratory in Staten Island, ±N"ew York, for four years before i t w a s recog nized b y the Congress a n d set u p as the hygiene laboratory in Washington wliere it later'developed into the present National I n s t i t u t e s of Health. Dr. Kinyoun's great contribution, Dr. Dyer explained, was t h e " e s t a b l i s h m e n t of research as a function of t h e Public Health Service." It was a function of the Public Health Service t h a t h a d a slow growth, the speaker said. As time went o n the increasing needs for research into varied fields affecting t h e p u b l i c health made Congress recognize t h e need f o r a larger research organization in this work, and t h e National I n s t i t u t e s of Health came into being.
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