ABSTRACT
Patent medicines had great appeal to the public because they offered a quick fix and made consumers feel as though they had some control over their own treatment. In the history of American pharmacy, the era after the Revolution all the way up to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, was one of these periods when anyone with an idea could develop, market, and distribute medicinal products to the public without any meaningful government regulation. The publication of the first Pharmacopoeia of the United States in 1820, the establishment of the first American college of pharmacy in Philadelphia in 1821, and the Drug Importation Act of 1848 were attempts toward professionalization and regulation, but they proved to be no match for the unchecked growth and profitability of patent medicines. Without any safety standards, the public was indeed at risk and in many cases harmed, as evidenced by several prominent law suits.
