American Pharmacists Association

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA, previously known as the American Pharmaceutical Association), founded in 1852, is the first-established professional society of pharmacists within the United States. APhA is made up of more than 60,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and others interested in advancing the profession. Through a House of Delegates that meets each year at the APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition, APhA provides a forum for discussion, consensus building, and policy setting for the profession of pharmacy. In fact, nearly all of pharmacy's specialty organizations trace their roots to APhA, having originally been a section or part of this broad foundation of pharmacy. The APhA Board of Trustees is responsible for broad direction setting of the Association. All members choose one of these three Academies when they join APhA:

• American Pharmacists Association - Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA–APPM)
• American Pharmacists Association - Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science (APhA–APRS)
• American Pharmacists Association - Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA–ASP)

Policy for APhA and the profession of pharmacy as a whole is developed by the APhA House of Delegates that meets each year at the APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition. The House has representatives from all major national pharmacy organizations, state pharmacy associations, federal pharmacy and APhA’s three academies:

In September, 2015 a controversy erupted when an APhA Foundation-sponsored "Bowl of Hygeia" award was given to Louisiana pharmacist Lloyd Duplantis, who not only was a prominent figure in a movement of pharmacists who refused to dispense the birth control pill, but had self published a book considered full of pseudo-scientific theories, the most notorious being a contention that high-dose estrogen birth control pills lead to an increase in "effeminate men" and homosexuality. The book also theorized that since these type of pills were tested in Haiti during the 1950's, by the 70's a higher percentage of the population would be homosexual, and a "unique population transfer" occurred during that time between Haiti and the African nation of Zaire, where the AIDS virus had been created as a result of "errant vaccine experiments," the Haitians then contracted the virus and brought it to the Western Hemisphere. Despite calls for APhA to rescind this award the organization has stood by its decision.

See also

• American Institute of Pharmacy Building, the Association's headquarters building in Washington, D.C., listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Remington Medal, awarded annually by the APhA
• Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, the Association's official journal

External links

• Official website