Antikamnia in America and Great Britain
The following letter from the Antikamnia Chemical Company to The Journal was received about August 1, 1912:
“You have at various times represented in your Journal that the Antikamnia sold in foreign countries, particularly in Great Britain, has a different formula from the Antikamnia sold in the United States, and you have also published alleged formulas of each to show wherein they are supposed to differ.
“We hereby respectfully notify you that the Antikamnia formula is the same for all countries, and the publication of any statements to the effect that the formula of Antikamnia is different in Great Britain, or any other foreign country, from that sold in the United States is a libel, and will be prosecuted as such.”
On the receipt of this a letter was written to a correspondent in London requesting him to purchase in the open market a package of Antikamnia. This was done and the original sealed package reached the Association’s laboratory a few days ago. Careful analysis of this specimen shows it to contain acetanilid but no acetphenetidin, while the Antikamnia sold in the United States contains acetphenetidin but no acetanilid. The company’s protest to the contrary notwithstanding, the formula of some Antikamnia, at least, is still different in Great Britain from that sold in the United States. It is possible, of course, that some time in the future the composition of every package of this nostrum on sale in the United Kingdom will be similar to that of every package sold in the United States. It is even possible that “Antikamnia & Quinin” tablets will—or do—actually consist of quinin and the mixture called Antikamnia—although, as The Journal has shown, this has not been the case in the past. Since the patent expired on acetphenetidin, this drug has become so cheap—it can be bought at wholesale for less than 6 cents an ounce—that, commercially it must make very little difference whether acetanilid or acetphenetidin is used in the manufacture of Antikamnia. But the question arises: Have our British confrères been notified of the change in formula? A careful study of the Antikamnia advertisements in English medical journals shows that the British medical profession has been given no more consideration by this concern than was the American medical profession when the change in composition was made on this side. But then why should it be? Physicians, British or American, who are addicted to the prescribing of secret proprietaries such as Antikamnia have little need of formulas—“Theirs not to reason why!” The medical profession on both sides of the Atlantic has never known the exact composition of Antikamnia and does not know it now. Physicians who call for preparations of the Antikamnia type are prescribing names, not drugs.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 26, 1912.)
Again, Antikamnia
Reproductions of portions of pages in the booklets sent out by the Antikamnia Chemical Company to physicians (on the right), and laymen (on the left), respectively. Those who do not realize the character of the Antikamnia concern naturally imagine the quotation here given from The Journal is a comparatively recent one. Notice that no dates are given. As a matter of fact, it is twenty-two years old. Dr. McIntyre, who wrote it, has been dead eleven years.
In season and out of season The Journal has exposed the Antikamnia fraud until it would seem that its readers would become weary of the very name. There is nothing new to say about this dangerous stuff, and yet the number of inquiries indicates that thousands of The Journal’s readers do not know of the previous exposures. More than fifteen years ago The Journal ceased carrying the Antikamnia advertisement; more than ten years ago it notified its readers that the nostrum was being advertised to the public by means of circular letters; more than six years ago it proved that, when the Food and Drugs Act went into effect, acetphenetidin had been substituted for acetanilid in Antikamnia evidently in order that the presence of the older drug, of whose dangers the public had been made aware might not have to be admitted; more than five years ago The Journal showed that the Antikamnia sold in the British Isles still contained acetanilid, and as late as last October it verified this statement although threatened with prosecution for libel by the Antikamnia Chemical Company.
Yet, in spite of all these exposures, not a week passes that we do not receive one or more letters calling attention to the Antikamnia fraud. Most of these letters deal with one, or more, of three points: first, the fact that the stuff is being advertised to the public by means of circular letters and that sample “vest-pocket boxes” of this dangerous drug are being sent through the mail to laymen; second, that Antikamnia is being advertised in newspapers, and, third, that in the booklets sent out by the Antikamnia Chemical Company both to the medical profession and to the public, a paragraph is quoted from an article by Dr. John H. McIntyre that appeared in The Journal.