| The U.S. pharmaceutical industry began 1994 with a good deal of trepidation, aware that it was likely to absorb much public criticism for prices and profiteering when Congress began considerations on a new health care bill. Drug manufacturers had been singled out as villains for being major contributors to the problem of health care costs, but... |
| in merchandising, retail store that sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Some, like department stores, offer wide assortments of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances. Food stores also have been operated on the discount principle. |
| any drug that mimics the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. See cholinergic drug. |
| any chemical substance that affects the functioning of living things and the organisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoans) that infect them. Pharmacology, the science of drugs, deals with all aspects of drugs in medicine, including their mechanism of action, physical and chemical properties, metabolism, and therapeutics and prophylaxis. |
| Even before 1993 drew to a close, it brought down a deluge of bad news on the heads of U.S. pharmaceutical industry executives. The image of the big companies as blue-chip, inevitably profitable cash cows for investors was smashed. The first blow was delivered by Pres. Bill Clinton's national health plan, which presented a real threat to... |
