Provenance of registered and imported pharmaceutical and related products Malta 1900-1990 (And the nineteenth century)

Abstract

Aims of this study This thesis is about one aspect of this impact of British pharmacy in Malta, the commercial impact, if any. The main aim of the thesis is to trace the commercial links in pharmaceutical items between Malta, the importing country, 2 and England and any other foreign countries, as the exporting countries, since the beginning of British colonial rule in Malta in 1800 to the present, 1990. It seeks to establish from which countries Malta has been obtaining its pharmaceutical supplies and also to establish if there is any particular preference from anyone or a number of countries. If there is such a country, then the study seeks also to find out if this preference is based purely on commercial reasons or if this distinct preference is based also on medical or pharmaceutical reasons. As already shown,3 before the British came here, there was already a system for the regular importation of drugs 1.Paul Cassar-, "Impact of British Pharmacy in Malta," Pharmaceutical Historian 8, no. 1 (1978): no pagination. 2. The trans it trade (import and reexport through Malta) in drugs of foreign origin, and the export trade of locally cultivated medicinal drugs, like dried squill, dried bitter orange peel, elaterium, cumin seed etc., are left out completely from the analysis. Data on the extent of this trade is available from official published statistics; for the export trade since 1875 and for the transit trade since 1910. 3.Cassar, "Importation of The Drugs and Equipment in the 18th century."

in Malta from neighboring Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland. Commercial links with England in the drug trade, before the nineteenth century, if they existed, do not seem to have been important. Therefore one other aspect of the thesis would be to trace when such imports from England started to gain in importance. The two indicators, of the commerce in pharmaceutical items, chosen for the study, are imports of pharmaceuticals from different countries and registration of pharmaceutical trade marks by companies from different countries. Imports are a direct indicator of the sales of products from a particular country whereas registrations of trade marks are just an indication of the interest that particular companies had in having their brand names protected in Malta. In Malta detailed importation statistics are only avai lable from 1910 onwards, and registration of trade marks started in 1900. Therefore this study is complete and definitive, for both indicators, for the twentieth century only.