Dr Malcolm E. Brown was a retired community, hospital and industrial pharmacist, and is a sociologist and honorary careers mentor at the University of East Anglia. 

He passed away peacefully on November 22, 2025 - C+D published an obituary on Malcolm.

C+D published his final column ‘A Victorian Chemist’s Christmas Mixture’ this week that looks at the concoction a pharmacist in Dickensian England would give to a young boy with a hollow cough on Christmas Eve. 

Having written dozens of columns for C+D, we round up our favourites from him. 

Spirits in community pharmacy: how alcohol links pharmacy and our culture 

Buckfast tonic wine, Brompton cocktails, and hand sanitisers ... alcohol's presence is more than chemical. 

A line in the sand: the unexplained exclusion of generic substitution 

The government has launched a consultation on enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines, but it excludes generic substitutions. The proposals shouldn't tiptoe around the most "common-sense form" of dispensing flexibility. 

Community pharmacy: A bespoke future awaits 

The personalisation trend gained teeth in July 2025 when the MHRA launched new rules on decentralised manufacturing. This is not just a tweak. It is, potentially, a quantum leap. 

Seize AI’s benefits, but keep on thinking... 

How would a pharmacy technician, partnering with an AI holding pharmaceutical knowledge, perform compared with a (more expensive) pharmacist choosing not to? 

Human extinction, pandemics, pharmacy and unicorns 

How soon will humans become extinct? Are we overdue another pandemic? And which “unicorns” should pharmacy nurture to help transform human’s evolution? Malcolm E. Brown reveals all. 

General practitioners and community pharmacists: the forever struggle? 

Malcolm E. Brown explores the history of how GPs and pharmacists have established their professions 

What role will pharmacists play in the eternal pursuit of a longer life? 

The desire to stop aging has always persisted. Could pharmacists help this be a gold rush bigger than the proliferation of weight loss drugs? 

Is community pharmacy truly ‘private’? 

How does community pharmacy balance providing healthcare and being a business, and does the label of ‘private’ risk undermining community pharmacy’s role in the health system? 

The steady evolution of pharmacy technicians into the future 

How has the role of a pharmacy technician been professionalised, and what's their place within community pharmacy’s future? 

Pharmacy’s predicament: a psychosocial perspective 

Pharmacy often finds itself relegated to a secondary position in the NHS. How can a profession so deeply intertwined with human health become so undervalued? 

From our Martian correspondent: medicines own Earthlings 

This ethnographic study explores the dominion of medicines and the curious behaviours of their devoted acolytes, as well as the sick and healthy Earthlings enthralled by them.