Regulations on the licensing of pharmacies, the qualification of pharmacists, and the relationship between pharmacists and physicians in Turkey (1852-1953)

Nuran Yıldırım & Gürkan Sert

The history of pharmaceutical regulations in Turkey started with the promulgation of the “Regulations for the Pharmacists of the Ottoman Empire” (Nizamname-i Eczacıyan der Memalik-i Osmaniye) in 17 May 1852. The expanded version of this first legal document, the “Civilian Regulation for the Practice of the Art of Pharmacy”, put into effect on 2 February 1861, was heavily critised by pharmacists: its Article 20 regulating prescriptions was revised within a year. This alteration did not soothe reactions, and in 1886 the draft entitled “The Civilian Pharmacy Regulation” promulgated many other changes, but  was never legally enforced. In face of opposition from European embassies in Istanbul (1893), the campaign to add an article concerning the control of medicines and mineral waters containing suspicious components imported from Europe to the 1861 proved futile.

The “Regulation for Pharmacies and Pharmacists” (Eczacılar ve Eczaneler Hakkında Kararname) which passed in 1922, the last year of the Ottoman Government, was not recognized by the new Turkish National Assembly Government in Ankara. This led the regulation of 1861 to remain in effect for 66 years, until 1927 when the “Law for Pharmacies and Pharmacists” (Eczacılar ve Eczahaneler Hakkında Kanun) was issued. The “General Regulation for Pharmacies” (Alelumum Eczahaneler Talimatnamesi) of 1916 was the reference for practical matters concerning the functioning of pharmacies.

The series of legal pharmaceutical regulations which issued in the late Ottoman Empire and remained in use in the first decades of the Turkish Republic, ended with the “Law on Pharmacists and Pharmacies” (Eczacılar ve Eczaneler hakkında Kanun) of 1953 which is still in use today.

In this study, the five basic laws issued between 1852-1953, the requirements for opening a pharmacy, to become a pharmacist as well as the regulations concerning the relationship between doctors and pharmacists will be comparatively studied with the aim of outlining the development of pharmaceutical profession in Turkey.

Key words: Pharmaceutical regulations, history of pharmacy, pharmacy in the Ottoman Empire, pharmacy in Turkey, doctor-pharmacist relationship.