Talk:Patent medicine

	Patent medicine is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
Article milestones Date Process Result September 27, 2004 Peer review Reviewed January 29, 2005 Featured article candidate Not promoted
Current status: Former featured article candidate

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2021 and 7 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bostoig.

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I've added Swaim's Panacea to the see also list, it was a very popular 19th century patent medicine, even after they took the mercury out of it!--Milowent • ^hasspoken 14:57, 15 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I know, the scope of this topic is primarily (obviously there are always exceptions) the United States (it's even classified as a U.S. History article). If this is not the case, please provide rationale here for the "globalize" template. Otherwise, it's pointless and should be removed. --Junkyardsparkle (talk) 00:08, 18 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have just added it again. This sort of quack medicine has been sold in almost all countries and is still sold widely in many where regulation remains weak. Pick up any popularist British newspaper or magazine from, say, the late 19th century, and many of the adverts will be for stuff very similar to what this article describes in the USA. Going back further, I was recently expanding the article about 17th century English quack Lionel Lockyer, who's idiotic "sunshine pills" fall squarely into this category, and who was just one of many such quacks in England. The same basic scam was repeated, with local variations, all across Europe.

If "patent medicine" was just the American name for this sort of thing and we had a more global article under, say,

Nostrum remedium then that would justify this being a USA focused article but we don't. Those two just point people back here. There is also Panacea (medicine), but that is a stub about things genuinely believed to cure everything under older theories of medicine, not the stuff sold in bad faith by quacks. So, I'm not proposing removing any of the existing American content but we do need to build this up with coverage of similar BS in other countries. If nothing else, it will serve to avoid giving the impression that only Americans fall for this nonsense. ;-) --DanielRigal (talk) 00:20, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

The History of aspirin Wikipedia article has a Rights and sale section with this text, "Under Carl Duisberg's leadership, Bayer was firmly committed to the standards of ethical drugs, as opposed to patent medicines. Ethical drugs were drugs that could be obtained only through a pharmacist, usually with a doctor's prescription. Advertising drugs directly to consumers was considered unethical and strongly opposed by many medical organizations; that was the domain of patent medicines. Therefore, Bayer was limited to marketing Aspirin directly to doctors." This text has a reference to a book published in 2008. Thus Aspirin has a "reliable reference" to the fact that it is not a patent medicine. Nick Beeson (talk) 03:39, 13 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]