Prof. Mustafa Nevzat Pisak
(1879-1968)
Prof. Mustafa Nevzat Pisak played a great role in establishing the modern pharmacy in Turkey, in changing the academic pharmacy program to one fashioned on western methods and in the establishment and development of the Turkish pharmaceutical industry.
He graduated from the Military Medical School in 1898 as a pharmacist candidate and from the Imperial Faculty of Medicine in 1902 as a pharmacist-chemist. His first job was in the Selanik Military Hospital in Macedonia. He came to İstanbul in 1909 with the Action Army.
In 1911 he was appointed as the laboratory chief of the Medical School, and in 1915 as the professor of pharmaceutical technology in the School of Pharmacy. He also taught materia medica at the Faculty of Medicine.
During his teaching career until 1933, he played an important role in establishing pharmacy as a science taught on an academic program instead of the traditional master-apprentice style.
He made translations from books taught in the French pharmacy schools and he wrote a book with pharmacist Ligor Taranakidis titled "Pharmaceutical Technology" which was published in 1924. He was appointed as the pharmacist of Red Crescent's Darüssafaka Hospital in 1914, and during the First World War (1914-1918), established a charity kitchen for 10.000 people. Due to his services in the Red Crescent, he was awarded the Red Cross Medal of Distinction by the Prince of Austria-Hungary and Bohemia, F. Salvator. He worked as a member of the commission which prepared the Turkish Pharmacopoeia the Second (1940) and its supplement (1948).
Professor Mustafa Nevzat Pisak was a pioneer for many novelties in the Turkish Pharmaceutical Industry. He is one of the first manufacturers to produce injectable ampoules in Turkey.
He produced a preparation by extracting opium from the poppy plant (1919). He manufactured the first injectable preparation from powder insulin (1935). He was a pioneer in establishing the "Quality Control" concept in the Turkish Pharmaceutical Industry.
In both his academic and business career, Prof. Mustafa Nevzat Pisak always upheld the fundamental philosophy of human welfare. In addition to this, his challenge of continuous improvement, is still the basic foundations of the MN Pharmaceuticals.
