Dosage Preparations

DOSAGE PREPARATIONS (agents), medicines manufactured in advance by factories and laboratories in doses established for use and dispensed from pharmacies without further processing. Some medicines in dosage form were prepared in advance long ago by artisanal methods and were introduced into the pharmacopoeia (e.g., Trochisci Santonini, Menthae, Ipecacuanhae, Natrii bicarbonici, etc.). In mass quantities, dosage preparations began to be manufactured in factories in England and America by firms that conducted world trade, since, due to their portability and low cost, dosage preparations present great advantages for export and the supply of colonies. However, the mechanization of production in the pharmaceutical field long encountered objections; it was pointed out that it was impossible to achieve accurate dosage and thoroughness of work by mechanical means, that errors were inevitable, that medicines would spoil during long-term storage, etc. Industrial progress and the development of technology overcame a number of difficulties here as well: at the present time, a large number of medicines are prepared in dosage form in tablets, pills, suppositories, globules, granules, ampoules, ointments, and other forms. Thus, many medicinal forms that were previously prepared in the pharmacy according to extemporaneous prescriptions are now prepared mechanically in factories and kept in stock by the pharmacy. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the mechanization of prescription compounding, like the entire pharmaceutical industry, was only in a nascent state; only after the nationalization of the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy business did the intensive planting of this form of medicinal supply begin as the most economical, accelerating dispensing and facilitating the advancement of medicines to remote areas lacking pharmacies. A circular of the Pharmaceutical Department of the People's Commissariat of Health in 1920 proposed taking a number of measures to replace outdated medicinal forms with factory-made dosage preparations and recommended dispensing certain powdered substances primarily in the form of tablets. Furthermore, a list of preparations in the form of tablets, simple and complex, pills, gelatin capsules, and ampoules was established. The Military Pharmacopoeia had already introduced several dozen preparations in dosage form in 1913. The 1925 Pharmacopoeia introduced 21 preparations in tablet form and 3 preparations for subcutaneous injections in ampoules. The Rules on the Organization of Pharmacies (dated November 22, 1927) provide for the obligation of every pharmacy to have in stock ampoules with special solutions of the following preparations: atropine, cocaine, cocaine with adrenaline, caffeine with sodium benzoate, ergotin, morphine, camphor oil, and strychnine. In a series of successive circulars, the People's Commissariat of Health, for the purpose of reducing costs and improving the quality of medical care (circulars of February 6, 1925, No. 57, May 22, 1928, No. 146, and March 22, 1929, No. 123), proposes that health departments strive for the maximum mechanization of medicine manufacturing. Dosage preparations, like ready-made agents, are prepared in mass quantities according to a prescription formula established by medical practice (for example, atophan, aspirin, bismuth nitrate salt, etc., at 0.3 and 0.5, camphor oil, cocaine solution at 1 cm³, aspirin+caffeine, dionin+terpin hydrate, etc.), but unlike ready-made agents, they are dispensed primarily not in factory packaging, but in pharmacy packaging. The suitability of dosage preparations for therapeutic purposes, in addition to the quality of the medicinal material, depends on the methods of manufacture, methods of packaging, and storage. Thus, the long-term preservation of tablets and their good disintegration depend on the compatibility of the ingredients, the nature of impurities and binding substances, the penetration of moist air, etc. Solutions in ampoules often decompose from alkaline glass, etc. For this reason, the quality of dosage preparations must be systematically checked in warehouses, pharmacies, and other places of storage.