World Pharmacists Day

As selected by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) seven years ago, today is World Pharmacists Day. A great opportunity to celebrate our Maxxima pharmacists and the fantastic work they do. This year’s theme is “From research to health care: your pharmacist is at your service”, highlighting the contributions pharmacy professions make to the healthcare industry.

It can be seen from statistics that the pharmaceutical industry contributes hugely to the healthcare sector. It can be said that pharmacists are at the backbone of healthcare, starting at the beginning by recognising health issues to developing medicines and policies to tackle them.

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Not only are pharmacists responsible for developing medicines, it seems they have been responsible for developing more than that. We’ve discovered some interesting facts about pharmacy:

1. Coca-Cola was invented by a pharmacist, John Pemberton. The new product was sampled at ‘Jacob’s Pharmacy’ and stated ‘excellent’ which led to it being placed on sale for 5 cents a glass.

2. Dr.Pepper was also created by a pharmacist named Charles Alderton.

3. Benjamin Franklin whilst being a founder of the United States, is also considered one of the founding fathers of pharmacy; playing a part in establishing one of the first public hospitals and hospital pharmacies in the United States.

4. Agatha Christie, British crime novelist, used to be what would now be known as a pharmacy technician. This explains how she knew so much about poison.

5. In 1834, Dr.John Cooke Bennet added tomatoes to ketchup. He claimed his recipe could cure diarrhoea, indigestion, jaundice and rheumatism. Due to the false claims, the ketchup medicine empire collapsed in 1850.

For more information about World Pharmacists Day please visit the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s website.

Why not celebrate with a new job? Browse our pharmacy jobs here.