In its advertising, the Hillside Chemical Co. claims that Pil. Mixed Treatment (Chichester) both as to formula and method of preparation “in the incapsulated powder form” was “brought to the notice of the profession by Dr. W. R. Chichester of New York, an eminent Syphilographer and recognized authority in the therapeutics of Syphilis.” It is claimed that this pill “is perfectly soluble, tasteless, nonirritant, and therefore well adapted to a sensitive stomach.” It is claimed that the pill “is always preferable to one extemporaneously prepared, which, even if identical in composition, often gives negative results.”
An examination made in the chemical laboratory of the association to determine if the product now marketed contains the claimed amount of potassium iodid indicated that this was the case. The chemist who made this examination commented as follows on the claim that in this pill, potassium iodid is rendered tasteless, that the pill is “perfectly soluble” and that extemporaneous pills of “identical ... composition often give negative results.”
“That the potassium iodid has been rendered tasteless is false, naturally; the pills when placed in the mouth, after removal of the coating, have the characteristic taste of alkali iodids. The claim that the pills are entirely soluble is incorrect; they contain a large amount of insoluble material, probably kaolin. The assertion that an extemporaneous compound prescription even if identical in composition with the Chichester pill is often inert, is absurd and a reprehensible attack by suggestion of the ideal that the physician shall write his prescription to meet the individual needs of his patient and that the pharmacist shall compound the prescriptions of the physician as they are required. It should also be pointed out that while much is said about the potassium iodid in the Chichester pill being in powdered form, the pill mass is solid and very slowly soluble and the claim of being in powdered form is, if immaterial, also incorrect.”
As to the asserted standing of the alleged discoverer of the formula for Pil. Mixed Treatment: Dr. William R. Chichester appears to have lived and practiced in New York since 1886 or longer, but the claim that he is an “eminent syphilographer” seems to have originated with the exploiters of “Pil. Mixed Treatment.” Search failed to show the name of W. R. Chichester among authors of textbooks of syphilis or any other branch of medicine or among authors of contemporary literature in the Index Medicus from 1907 down to the present; nor did a search of the catalogue to the Surgeon-General’s Library reveal W. R. Chichester as ever having published anything on syphilis or any other subject.
Pil. Mixed Treatment (Chichester) is sold under therapeutic claims which are unwarranted and misleading. The preparation well illustrates the abuses which are connected with the exploitation as proprietaries of established drugs or mixtures of established drugs.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 22, 1921.)
ATOPHAN OMITTED FROM N. N. R.
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
The Council has authorized publication of the following report explaining why Atophan has been omitted from New and Nonofficial Remedies. Schering and Glatz, Inc., the firm which markets this brand of cinchophen in the United States, has refused to place either the U. S. Pharmacopeial name, “Phenylcinchoninic Acid (Acidum Phenylcinchoninicum)” or the N. N. R. name, “Cinchophen,” on the label and in the advertising matter so as to make the identity of the product clear to physicians. Furthermore, the product is sold under therapeutic claims which the Council holds to be exaggerated and unwarranted.