The
pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets
drugs licensed for use as
medications.
[1] Pharmaceutical companies can deal in
generic and/or
brand medications. They are subject to a variety of laws and regulations regarding the
patenting, testing and marketing of drugs.
The earliest drugstores date back to the Middle Ages. The first known drugstore was opened by Arabian pharmacists in Baghdad in 754,[2] and many more soon began operating throughout the medieval Islamic world and eventually medieval Europe. By the 19th century, many of the drug stores in Europe and North America had eventually developed into larger pharmaceutical companies.
Most of today's major pharmaceutical companies were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Key discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s, such as insulin and penicillin, became mass-manufactured and distributed. Switzerland, Germany and Italy had particularly strong industries, with the UK, US, Belgium and the Netherlands following suit.
Legislation was enacted to test and approve drugs and to require appropriate labelling. Prescription and non-prescription drugs became legally distinguished from one another as the pharmaceutical industry matured. The industry got underway in earnest from the 1950s, due to the development of systematic scientific approaches, understanding of human biology (including DNA) and sophisticated manufacturing techniques.
