A Milestone in Ottoman Pharmacy: The British Pharmacy in Istanbul

The British Pharmacy (1859 – 1965) in Istanbul was one of the pioneerpharmacies of the Ottoman Empire because of the large scale of its drugmanufacturing business. For more than a century, it served on the Grande Ruede Péra (today Istiklal Street) in the Beyoglu District of Istanbul, where it wasrun by different members of the same family: Noël Canzuch, Joseph Canzuch,François Canzuch, Vincent Giannetti and Silvio Giannetti. Among them, thepharmacist Joseph Canzuch was succeeded in receiving a “Diplome de mérite”at the International Medical Congress (London) in 1881. In 1932, the pharmacywas purchased by Pharmacist Muhittin Hüsnü Kansuk who adopted the originalname (Canzuch) with only a slight difference in pronounciation, as his surname.He ran the British Kansuk Pharmacy until 1965. In 1960, M. H. Kansuk and Dr.İsmet Sözen set up a drug manufacturing company under the name KansukLaboratuarı which is still part of the Turkish pharmaceutical market today.