46 Interesting Pharmacy Technician Facts

Have you ever wondered when did the position of a pharmacy technician come into existence or what is the ethnicity of the pharmacy technician workforce in the country or where did the first drugstore open. Wouldn't it be interesting to know about some trivia related to pharmacy technician history and statistical data? The following facts and figures will let you know all that you probably never knew about Pharmacy Technology.



1. Benjamin Franklin is considered the founding father of pharmacy. Before he discovered electricity, Benjamin Franklin dispensed medicine as a pharmacist. He worked as a clerk in a local mercantile store, where he dispensed medicines, herbs and other cures.

2. Before landing his job as a vice-president, Humphrey dropped out of school to help his father run a drug store. He went on to earn his pharmacy license and assisted his father at the pharmacy, filling prescription medications for 4 years.

3. The Australian actor, Chris Hemsworth who played of Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron had been working in a pharmacy before he got famous. One of his tasks at the drugstore was to sterilize breast pumps after women returned them to the pharmacy.

4. You know how Dr. Pepper was born? Charles Alderton, a pharmacy technician, loved the smell of a drugstore. He then went ahead and invented a drink that smelled just that way, named Dr. Pepper in Waco, Texas in 1885.

5. Listerine is named after Joseph Lister who promoted using antiseptics at the hospitals.

6. Coca Cola was invented by John Pemberton, a pharmacist. He carried a jug of the new product to Jacob's Pharmacy, where it was sampled and stated 'brilliant' and kept on sale for 5 cents a glass as a soda fountain drink.

7. Some of the oldest pharmaceutical records, called Ebers Papyrus, have been found in Egypt. They date back to around 1500 B.C.

8. During the Black Plague, physicians, apothecaries and their assistants wore amulets which were made up of dried blood and ground up toads!

9. The first hospital pharmacy commenced operations in 1752 at the first colonial United States Hospital that was instituted in1751 in Pennsylvania.

10. In the 1900 most pharmacies stocked their shelves with prefabricated tablets and capsules which were mass produced during the Industrial Revolution, thereby for the first time, diminishing the traditional role of a pharmacist to produce medicines.

11. Agatha Christie, the renowned crime novelist began working as a nurse and then secured a job as an apothecary's assistant; i.e. today's pharmacy technician! She learnt a lot about pharmaceuticals and drugs and used some of her knowledge in her novels.

12. Prior to becoming a pharmacist, Charles R. Walgreen Sr. used to work at a shoe factory and he lost part of a finger in a mishap. Later, he became a pharmacist apprentice and then a pharmacist. He used to work for a Chicago pharmacist, who in due course retired, and gave him the chance to buy out the store in 1901. He bought a second drug store in 1909, and incorporated 9 Walgreen stores by 1919 and the 100th store in Chicago in 1926. After him, his son, Charles Walgreen Jr. continued building the chain to 6,000 stores.

13. The first CVS store, selling health and beauty products was started in 1963 in Massachusetts by Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and Ralph Hoagland.

14. In the 1800s, there were no license requirements to even become a pharmacist and of course, the position of a pharmacy technician did not even exist.

15. In 1995 the ASHP, along with other groups created the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) to certify pharmacy technicians in the United States.

16. Pharmacy Technician as a profession got recognition in the 1970s. The ASHP created the first training guidelines for a pharmacy tech program in 1975.

17. In the 19th century and until as recent as 1970s, pharmacist owned and managed their own pharmacies as they did not feel the need to pay a salary to an assistant as there was very little workload as there were fewer patients and fewer medications to keep note of.

18. America celebrates the American Pharmacists Month, which lasts for all of October; it reaffirms the remarkable growth in the development of new drugs and technology.

19. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2017, there were 417,720 Pharmacy Technicians and their mean annual salary was about $33,060.

20. Retail Pharmacies hire the maximum number of pharmacy technicians and pay a salary of approximately $30,950 annually.

21. Kennewick and Richmond are the highest paying cities, with an annual average pharmacy technician salary of $48,690.

22. States which paid the highest Pharmacy Technician salary, annually in 2016 were:

• Washington-$40,300

• Alaska-$39,980

• California-$39,710

• Hawaii-$36,400

• Oregon-$36,270

23. Pharmacy Technicians who know Spanish have an advantage.

24. The job Satisfaction level of a pharma tech is 4 out of 5.

25. 78% of Pharmacy Technicians are Females.

26. The pharmacy technician workforce comprises of 33% whites, 30% of Hispanics, 22% of blacks, 6% of Asians, and the remaining 11% are multiracial.

27. Texas has the highest number of certified pharmacy technicians with 40,411 practicing this profession as of December 2016.

28. Since 1995 the PTCB has awarded 618,408 certifications, nationwide.

29. Of all the 50 states only 4 states do not regulate their pharmacy technicians. They are Colorado, Wisconsin, New York and Pennsylvania.

30. CVS Pharmacy, Walgreen's Pharmacy, Walmart, and Rite Aid Pharmacy are some of the popular big recruiters of Pharmacy Technicians.

31. The average age of the pharmacy technician in 2015 was 43.6 years.

32. Currently, there are around 283,000 pharmacists and 397,430 pharmacy technicians working in the U.S. (as of 2016)

33. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is worth $446 billion.

34. Lipitor is the best-selling drug. It was launched in 1997 and its patent expired in 2011, making approximately $125 billion.

35. Insulin is a very common drug that causes adverse reactions.

36. Hydrocodone is the most commonly prescribed drug in the United States.

37. Glybera is the most expensive drug at a wholesale cost of $1.21 million annually.

38. The laws regarding training, licensing, and staffing of pharmacy technicians differ significantly by state. 35 states, Guam, and the District of Columbia do not require licensing or certification of pharmacy technicians, on the other hand, of these, 27 necessitated registration of pharma technicians.

39. In 2016, 70% of pharmacy technician jobs were in retail pharmacies, either independently owned or part of a drugstore chain, grocery store, department store, or mass retailer. 13% were in hospitals. A tiny percentage of pharmacy technicians were employed in mail order and internet pharmacies, clinics, pharmaceutical wholesalers, and the Federal government.

40. Escalating costs of prescription medications and the rise in popularity of online shopping have resulted in more Americans buying medicines from online stores. Despite the fact that most internet pharmacy sites abide by the state and federal laws, a few unregulated online pharmacies based are known to sell banned and dangerous counterfeit drugs to U.S. consumers.

41. The market value, globally for fake drugs is projected at $75 billion annually.

42. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy reviewed 10,275 websites which sold prescription medications; they discovered that 96.7% of them did not conform to the federal or state laws and/or other pharmaceutical industry standards.

43. The National Association Boards of Pharmacy runs the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites accreditation program, which confirms and officially states that online pharmacy retailers comply with state and federal laws.

44. The very first drugstores in North America appeared in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

45. It takes about 20 years to develop a new drug!

46. There are currently as of July 2018 about 496 schools in the United States that offer pharmacy technician programs.


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