History of Nuclear Pharmacy

The concept of nuclear pharmacy was first described in 1960 by Captain William H. Briner while at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Along with Mr. Briner, John E. Christian, who was a professor in the School of Pharmacy at Purdue University, had written articles and contributed in other ways to set the stage of nuclear pharmacy. William Briner started the NIH Radiopharmacy in 1958. John Christian and William Briner were both active on key national committees responsible for the development, regulation and utilization of radiopharmaceuticals.A Technitium-99 (a radionuclide) generator was commercially availability which was followed by the availability of a no. of Tc-99m based radiopharmaceuticals………

Though training in the field was initially restricted to military personnel, it was eventually expanded to include the private sector. The first civilian and first female instructed in the practice of Nuclear Pharmacy was Lori Schneider, trained at Letterman Army Medical Center, San Francisco in 1984.