COLLYRIUM-WYETH
“I should be glad of any information about Wyeth’s Collyrium and would also like to know if the position taken by this concern measures up to the requirements of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry.”
This inquiry was received from a Boston physician, who enclosed with his note the letter quoted below that he had received from John Wyeth & Brother, Philadelphia, the makers of the preparation in question:
“We have your letter of the 22d inst., in which you request us to send to you formula for ‘Collyrium,’ and in reply thereto, beg to advise, being a corporation you will, we think appreciate why we are not at liberty to disclose the various formulas under which our preparations are made. Such is the competition in the trade that secrecy in this respect is a valuable asset.
“You will not for a moment think that we take this position through any distrust of your discretion or good faith, but because we feel that our duty to the stockholders of the company prohibits us from disclosing our formulas.
“Let us assure you however, that the eyewash contains only the simplest and most harmless remedies well known to the medical profession.”
John Wyeth & Brother seek the patronage of the medical profession and desire physicians to use their preparations, but “being a corporation” they “are not at liberty to disclose the various formulas” of these preparations. In other words, they expect physicians of the country to prescribe “patent medicines” of whose composition they must be ignorant and to rely wholly on the word of John Wyeth & Brother as to the innocuousness of these products.
The letter is an insult to the physician to whom it was written. If physicians were not so apathetic in cases of this kind, the corporation of John Wyeth & Brother would long since have been forced “off the fence”—it would have become either a “patent medicine” concern or would have confined its activities to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and ethically exploited proprietaries. Now what about this Collyrium-Wyeth? It was analyzed in the Chemical Laboratory of the American Medical Association and the chemists report:
“The specimen of Collyrium-Wyeth examined was a clear, colorless liquid having a faint odor like benzaldehyd. Qualitative tests demonstrated the presence of antipyrin, free boric acid and sodium borate. Acetanilid, ammonium salts, glycerin, nitrates, phosphoric acid and pyramidon were absent. Such potent alkaloids as atropin, cocain, homatropin and pilocarpin, which are often used in ocular surgery, were not found. Preparations of goldenseal were not present. Quantitive examination indicated that the composition of the preparation examined is essentially as follows:
| “Antipyrin | 0.41 | gm. |
| “Sodium borate | 0.55 | gm. |
| “Boric acid | 2.14 | gm. |
| “Water (by difference) to make | 100.00 | c.c.” |
The secret of such a formula must indeed be a “valuable asset!” We venture the assertion that if the medical profession did its duty, the corporation of John Wyeth & Brother would find that its “duty to the stockholders of the company” constrained it to abandon secret “patent medicines” and to confine its activities to a legitimate line of pharmaceutical products. An examination of the firm’s pricelist reveals but a very few secret-formula preparations of the type represented by Collyrium, hence it would probably not seriously damage the business of the firm either to eliminate all such formulas from its pricelist or to enable the physician to use them intelligently, if they deserve it.—(From The Journal A. M. A., May 17, 1913.)