The Elderly and Pharmaceuticals

With a growing number of elders in our population, there is an enormous profit being made by pharmaceutical companies. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the population of persons aged 60 and older in the U.S., was approximately 16.7 million people (Projected Future Growth of the Older Population , 2008). With the baby boomer generation quickly approaching this age group, that number is expected, by many leading analysts, to explode and rise dramatically. It is estimated that by the year 2020, that number will be approximately 21,008,851 (Projected Future Growth of the Older Population , 2008). This large number of elderly in our population certainly attracts the attention of …show more content…
The practices of medicine by the ancient cultures, such as the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, were fine tuned and improved upon up through the middle ages. It wasn’t until 1869 that the first synthetic drug was introduced. Chloral hydrate, was introduced as a sedative-hypnotic and it is used today in some countries. Later, discoveries were made that by distilling coal, the by-product (coal-tar) was a rich source of organic chemicals. Later discoveries were made that the sap from the bark of a white willow tree had been used by many ancient cultures for hundreds of years to treat many fevers and inflammation. The active agent in this bark, known as salicin, had a very bitter taste and caused much irritation to the esophogus. A simple change in the chemical make up and the salicin became much more palatable to patients. Chemists had now discovered what we know today as Aspirin (Jones, 2011). Around the same time Heroin is introduced and believed by physicians to be non-addicting. After months of distribution to patients, heroin of course was found to be so addicting that there was a proffesional and public outcry on it’s ban. The World War years marked two major developments that layed the way for …show more content…
The first development was was introduced by chemist Frederick Banting and his colleagues who together, were able to segregate insulin and use it to treat type 1 diabetes. After collaberating with fellow scientists they were able to purify the medicine and start distribution. The second development was the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, which is considered to be the most successful breaktrough in medicine. After much experimentation, a government-supported international partnership including Merck, Pfizer and Squibb were able to mass produce penicillin during the second world war which saved the lives of thousands of soldiers. This mass