Page 10 - Pharmacy History 32 July 2007

Antomsulph: “DA Chemist’s Code”
Geoff Miller
At the time when such a
price list was in use, the usual formula for pricing a prescription was to calculate the cost of the ingredients and a container, add 50% and a dispensing fee of 1/6 (15c).
In order to keep some form of consistency in the pricing of prescriptions, the amount charged was recorded in the Prescription Book and on the prescription form itself when returning it to the patient.
To preserve some of the ‘Mystery’ of dispensing, the price was shown as a code. In Australia this universal pricing code used the letters
A N T O M S U L P H,
superimposed over the numbers 1 to 0 (see table)
It stems back to the days when pharmacy ethics were more than just another word, and pharmacists did
try and help each other in a few small ways. The Code of Ethics issued by the Societies around the country followed the British model which included terms like ‘There should be at all times a readiness to assist colleagues with information or advice.’
The formation of PATA (The Proprietary Articles Trade Association) also had some influence on the pricing code for prescriptions as this is the way chemists thought in earlier days.
Prices were always an issue where chemists ‘went to water’.
The use of ‘antomsulph’ was promoted by the Guild Pricing service and that’s why numbers of the older generation of pharmacists probably still use the code for passwords and pin numbers today, rather that for pricing scripts. The origin of the word itself is obscure but it could have stemmed from the Master Pharmacists Association of New South Wales (MPA) which was a powerful and active group.
The president of the MPA at the time was Leslie W Smith, assisted by Leslie J Thompson, the accountant,
In the 1920s the MPA produced The Blue Book so that for the first time retail chemists had an official price list. This was the fore runner of the pricing system developed by the the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which had grown from printed price lists to micro fiche. Coping with price changes was always a major problem for pharmacy staff. The Guild had actively promoted the use of the ‘antomsulph’code among its members up until the time when the
use of dispensary computers became universal
Another code for use mainly in the retail side of the pharmacy in Australia was ‘MAUVE SKIRT’, but this
did not have the same acceptance as ‘antomsulph’
With regard to the drug tariff every known factor was taken into account and calculations were made on the ‘true cost’ of each drug.
A table produced by NSW pharmacist Keith Thomas, was introduced to assist the chemist calculate broken quantities of the ever increasing number of proprietary medicines coming onto the market.
This was appropriately called the The Thomas Table.
No longer were the old flat rates economic or scientific.
The use of a code for pricing purposes in Australia was probably copied from the British systems.
Some were in house and others were more universal. Some codes were derived from simple pharmaceutical sources. Others carry a definite proprietorial flourish
Many reveal their selection to be resolutely commercial.
For example, code words with a pharmaceutical connotation included ‘MEL BORACIS’. This was used in Britain and some Commonwealth countries.
‘CHEMISTRY’ was widely used in
the US.
‘VINUM ALOES’ was used by some chain pharmacies like Timothy Whites in the UK.
The Boots convention used throughout its branches was‘O PUSH TRADE’ They obviously found it useful to know what the opposition was charging!
Scrap of a Price List issued by courtesy of the Brisbane Chemist’s Association by the Pharmaceutical Society of Queensland c 1930
10 ■ Pharmacy History Australia
volume 3 ■ no 33 ■ NOVEMBER 2007