SOAMIN OMITTED FROM N. N. R.

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

Soamin is the name under which the firm of Burroughs Wellcome and Company sells its brand of sodium arsanilate. The Council directed the omission of Soamin from New and Non­official Remedies and authorized publication of the report which appears below after the proprietors of the product had declined to withdraw or suitably revise the unwarranted therapeutic claims which it made.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

The proprietary brand “Soamin” of sodium arsanilate was admitted to New and Non­official Remedies several years ago at a time when the therapeutic value of arsanilic acid had not been definitely determined. Experience with this drug has shown that it is far more dangerous and also has a more limited field of usefulness than was at first recognized. The proprietors of the Soamin brand have continued to include in the list of conditions in which it “would seem” to be a “very effective agent” cerebrospinal meningitis and pellagra; in fact, meningitis is the first in the list of conditions mentioned, syphilis the second and pellagra third. In support of their belief in the efficacy of the remedy in meningitis, three reports, published from six to nine years ago, are quoted. In one of these it is stated that two patients “were cured”; in another report, seven of eight patients in whom the clinical, but not the microscopic, diagnosis of meningitis had been made were reported as having recovered; in the third report, fifty-six of ninety cases were reported cured; in this larger series of cases the author neglects to state the method of administration. The firm quotes but one paper (which is a very uncritical report) in regard to pellagra.

It seems to the Council that the evidence of value of sodium arsanilate in these conditions (which are now treated by more rational methods) is too slight to justify the emphasis laid on it by the firm, especially as sodium arsanilate is admittedly a dangerous agent, several cases of blindness having been reported from its use.

For these reasons it was voted to omit Soamin from New and Non­official Remedies.—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1919, p. 89.)