The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-08-27
Drugs and Their Cost.

Drugs and Their Cost.
Interviews secured with a number
Of druggists Of this city in relation to
the proposed establishment of a State
Laboratory show that the plan does
not meet with favor at their hands.
But their u~tterances seem to indicate
that they have not given the idea the
careful consideration it really de-
serves. They all assert that drugs
cannot be prepared any cheaper than
now sold by the wholesale druggists
Of New York. That is equivalent to
saying that they are content with
their present profits and do not pro-
pose to have them interfered with.
The scheme, as THE News under
stands it, Is not so much for the ben
eft Of druggists as OF the public to
whom 1t is proposed to furnish all
standard preparations at reduced
rates without decreasing the profits OF
the retail dealers. To that. surely,
there should be no objection. The
projectors of the scheme say this can
be done, and as they give data for
their belief their assertion cannot be
silenced by a wave of the hand or a
simple denial. They say that one
article mentioned in the despatch
published yesterday can be made
at sixty-one cents per pound,
with a rebate, while the rul-
ing wholesale quotation is $1.75
per pound. Perhaps our arithmetic
ma be wrong, but that strikes us as
being within a trifle of 200 per cent.
profit. What profit the retailer may
get upon the article we cannot say.
but drug usually purchase
in small quantities, and it is fair to
presume that the retailers profits are
in an inverse ratio to the quantity
sold. Pehaps this is reasonable
enough, considering the value of the
sale We are not finding fault with
the retailer, though mis- profits are said
to be phenomenal. Very likely they are.
In detail, but the circumstances OF the
case demand it. He sells an ounce,
say. of a prescribed article and he
must needs get a large profit to n
able him to meet the expenses OF his
establishment and the amount he
has invested in fixtures. fittings and
matters of that sort. His actual
profit is not to be estimated by the
apparent profit upon an ounce OF
drugs. But If the cost of these drugs,
which is something enormous in the
annual aggregate for a community
like Jersey City can be cheapened to
the customer by the plan of a State
laboratory. why shouldn't the scheme
be given fair trial?
What are called standard prepara-
tions'' must certainly yield an enor-
nous profit for every owner OF a pro-
prietary medicine which succeeds in
securing the popular favor soon be-
comes a millionaire. The rivalry that is
going on between druggists in the sale
OF these articles conclusively proves
the phenomenal profits of these med
icinesn-though many of them are
drugs of the very worst sort
Take one Of the least injurious-or
perhaps it would be more polite to
say the most beneficial-of these, for
example. Sarsaparilla viii do.
There are a dozen prepar-
ations Of this On the market.
The nominal price is one dollar per
bottle. Yet almost any of them can
be purchased for si%xty-nine cents.
Now, If the retailer can make such a
cut as this and yet obtain a ''living
profit" what must the profit be at the
manufacturers rate, one dollar?
If there is an equal chance for inn
proyement ION the purchasers side in
other compounds, a State Laboratory
Shouts be something in the nature of
..,hfsn hIaGSfno