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Josep Pla-Narbona (1928–2020) passed away last Sunday, December 13, in Sant Cugat del Vallès at the age of 92, due to terminal cancer.

Considered one of the greatest Spanish graphic artists in history, he leaves behind an important artistic legacy through his advertising posters, paintings, and engravings.

Among his advertising work, some of his most popular pieces were created for products such as Polil and Nescafé, but he will be especially remembered for his collaborations with the Uriach Laboratories, with whom he worked for over 40 years, producing true works of art for products such as Biodramina, Lipomin, Pacetyn, and Dolmen.

Born in Barcelona in 1928, Pla-Narbona began his artistic training as an apprentice in advertising drawing workshops with artists such as J. Artigas and R. Fábregas at the School of Arts and Crafts of Barcelona, as well as at the advertising agency R.L. Dupuy in Paris.

A renowned engraver and painter, he received the National Design Award in 2004 and the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2019 for being a model in his discipline, opening new paths for future generations, and earning broad international recognition. He received numerous awards, and his works have been exhibited in some of the world’s finest museums, such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Alongside his professional work, Pla-Narbona was also a pioneer in professional associations: he was the first president of the graphic designers’ association Grafistas-Agrupación FAD (today known as ADG-FAD), and also the first president of the Spanish group of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

The Uriach Foundation, which preserves his works created for the Uriach Laboratories, wishes to honor the memory of this great artist.

On Tuesday, October 10, a virtual ceremony was held to recognize 14 individuals responsible for preserving and enriching the heritage collections of the University of Barcelona.

Among them was Dr. Joan Esteva de Sagrera, a trustee of our Foundation, who served as Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences for 10 years (2009–2018). Dr. Sagrera, together with Dr. Anna Maria Carmona, Director of the Museum of Catalan Pharmacy, have been primarily responsible for the preservation and expansion of the museum’s historical collection, which holds more than 2,000 objects, including old pharmaceutical specialties and pharmaceutical advertising posters.

The Uriach Foundation devotes part of its activities to the promotion and dissemination of the history of the Health Sciences and has collaborated on several occasions with the Faculty of Pharmacy of this University in organizing exhibitions related to the history of Pharmacy, as well as being a member of the Medical-Pharmaceutical Institute chaired by Dr. Carmona.

We would like to congratulate Dr. Joan Esteva de Sagrera and Dr. Anna Maria Carmona on receiving this award, which clearly reflects the gratitude and recognition of the university community for the work carried out over so many years.

Advertisement from the 1920s for the product JARABE BEBÉ. A product indicated for treating stubborn coughs in adults and whooping cough in children.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious acute infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract caused by the gram-negative bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It is characterized by tracheobronchial inflammation and typical fits of violent, spasmodic coughing with a sensation of suffocation, ending with a high-pitched inspiratory “whoop.”

Jarabe Bebé was originally produced by the laboratories Pons, Moreno & Co., located in Burjassot (Valencia), but was exclusively distributed by the laboratories “J. Uriach y Cía. Sociedad en Comandita”.

On Monday, September 28, the jury met to award the 51st Uriach Foundation Prize “History of Medicine,” which is presented annually by the Uriach Foundation 1838.

The meeting took place at the Círculo Ecuestre in Barcelona and was attended by the jury members: Ms. Ana Maria Carmona Cornet, Mr. Alfons Zarzoso, and Mr. Jon Arrizabalaga Valbuena, who served as secretary.

Representing the Uriach Foundation 1838 was its vice president, Mr. Javier Uriach Torelló.

After successive rounds of voting, the 51st Uriach Foundation Prize was awarded to the work “Psychoanalytic Treatments for Homosexuals in Chile (1952–1957),” whose author, once the sealed envelope was opened, turned out to be Mr. Marcelo Enríque Valenzuela Cáceres, residing in Talca, Chile.

The runner-up prize was awarded to the work “Surgical Innovation, Private Clinics and Public Charity: Towards a New Model of Care in the City of Valencia,” whose author, once the sealed envelope was opened, was revealed to be Mr. Xavier García Ferrandis, residing in Valencia.

With the publication of the jury’s decision, the call for submissions for the 52nd Uriach Foundation Prize “History of Medicine” is now open. The contest rules will be published shortly on the Foundation’s website.

Next Tuesday, September 22, the Uriach Chair of Nutraceuticals will be presented at the Rectorate of Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. Attending the presentation will be the Rector of the University, Dr. Maria José Figueras; the Vice-Rector for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, Dr. Francisco Medina; Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology and Director of the Chair, Dr. Begoña Muguerza; Uriach’s Consumer Healthcare Director, Dr. Javier Navarro; and Uriach’s Consumer Healthcare R&D Manager, Ms. Rosa Raventós.

This Chair is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Uriach Foundation and Rovira i Virgili University to promote knowledge of nutraceuticals in the educational, professional, and social spheres through the dissemination, teaching, and research activities that foster the progress and development of this discipline in our country. The Chair will be attached to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, which coordinates the official Master’s in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB), offered in collaboration with the University of Barcelona. Its director will be Dr. Begoña Muguerza, Associate Professor in this department and head of the Nutrigenomics Research Group at URV.

The objectives of the Chair will be to contribute to the training of students so that they can face new challenges in the field of nutraceuticals, facilitate their entry into the business and industrial sectors, promote the training of healthcare professionals in this discipline, foster scientific meetings to disseminate nutraceuticals, and create new lines of research in this innovative field of study.

The generation and dissemination of knowledge on nutraceuticals, from different but complementary perspectives industrial, professional, and educational, will support the creation of future spaces for debate, collaboration, and development in this field.

To achieve this, the Chair will organize various activities such as courses and specialized workshops for professionals and students, the awarding of scholarships to students of the official Master’s in Nutrition and Metabolism (URV-UB), and the establishment of an annual prize for the best Master’s Thesis related to nutraceuticals. In addition, Uriach professionals will participate as lecturers in this master’s program to provide an industrial and professional perspective on nutraceuticals.

Advertising postcard from the late 19th century for ENOSÓTERO, a product designed to preserve and improve all types of wines. Easy to use and economical, it was intended for winemakers and wine merchants who wanted to prevent wine from turning into vinegar.

As indicated on the back of the postcard: “At a dose of about 45 grams per hectoliter (an ounce and a half per batch), it preserves and improves all kinds of wines, both natural and those to which sugar or molasses have been added. It is indispensable to prevent low-alcohol wines and so-called agua-pié wines from turning into vinegar or rotting. With Enosótero, wine can travel by sea and withstand changes in temperature without alteration.”

This product was exclusively distributed by the company “Alomar y Uriach”, headquartered at 20 Montcada Street, Barcelona.

In these difficult days, in which the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives and half the world is searching for a vaccine to confront this disease, we would like to recall how the immunization system was first introduced in Spain.

The person responsible for this great advance was the physician Francisco Piguillem Verdacer who, following Edward Jenner’s experiments, inoculated four children from Puigcerdà in December 1800 with lymph brought from Paris, so that they would develop immunity to the virus, thus paving the way for the vaccine.

The document that best records these events is Piguillem’s work “La vacuna en España ó cartas familiares sobre esta nueva inoculación: escritas a la señora.” This work, published in 1814, brings together the letters that the author wrote to the mother of one of these first vaccinated children, in which he describes the events, the procedure, and a brief history of smallpox and the vaccination introduced by Edward Jenner.

Despite criticism and reproaches from some detractors of this new practice, Piguillem continued to spread vaccination throughout Catalonia and the rest of the country, translated François Colon’s “Essai sur l’innoculation de la vaccine”, and was appointed Professor of Medicine at the Medical-Practical Academy of Barcelona.

In addition to a copy of the aforementioned work, the Uriach Foundation also preserves a set of manuscripts dated 1826 containing lecture notes by Piguillem on Pyretology, Medical Philosophy, Ideology, and Classification of Medicines, recorded by his students.

Advertisement from 1956 for “Allcock’s Plasters”, a product registered with the General Directorate of Health on March 23, 1933, and indicated for relieving rheumatism, sciatica, or lumbago through the effect of some of its ingredients, such as fine incense, Burgundy resin, beeswax, myrrh gum, palo santo gum, among others.

This product, originally from the American company Allcock, based in Ossining (New York), was manufactured in our facilities in the Clot neighborhood, thanks to the pharmacist José María Uriach Balari, and was distributed exclusively in Spain by Uriach Laboratories.

The retail price of this healing plaster was 6.40 pesetas.

The Uriach Foundation Library has recently acquired an important collection of pamphlets on cholera, expanding our holdings on this subject:

• Arandia, Aniceto María de. El cólera, nociones generales para conocerlo en sus diferentes períodos, medios de evitar su invasión, el contagio y método curativo. 28 p. Vitoria, 1885.

• Cartilla popular contra el cólera, instrucciones preventivas, pronóstico, tratamiento, preservación individual, primeros cuidados, formulario de desinfección. 30 p.

• Gimeno, Amalio. El cólera según el doctor Koch. 100 p. Valencia, 1884.

• Guallart, Toribio. Instrucción para el pueblo… cólera-morbo asiático. 30 p. Madrid, 1854.

• Hayem, Jorge. Tratamiento del Cólera Morbo, lección dada en la Facultad de Medicina de Paris. 15 p. Madrid, 1884.

• López Ferreira, Francisco. Profilaxis del cólera indiano: antisepsia intestinal en el ataque colérico. 4 p. Madrid, 1892.

• Necoechea, Félix. Receta para curar el cólera. 6 p. Puebla (Mexico), 1850.

• Brevísima instrucción que para preservarse y corregir los primeros síntomas del cólera morbo dirige la Academia de Medicina de Castilla la Vieja a los habitantes de la provincia. 12 p. Valladolid, 1865.

• Rosso, Laureano. El cólera, consideraciones sobre los puntos más interesantes de esta enfermedad y exposición de su tratamiento sintomático y de las precauciones generales… 27 p. Seville, 1885.

• Seoane, Mateo. Documentos relativos a la enfermedad llamada cólera espasmódica de la India. 48 p. Madrid, 1831.

• Sociedad Española de Higiene. Conclusiones relativas a la profilaxis y los medios de atenuar los efectos del cólera morbo epidémico. 24 p. Madrid, 1890.

• Tunisi, Carlos. Tratamiento específico del cólera. 2nd ed., notably revised. 32 p. Barcelona, 1884.

• Valera y Giménez. Breve reseña de una pequeña epidemia de Cólera morbo asiático en Villalgordo del Júcar. 167 p. Albacete, 1885.

The Uriach Foundation 1838 invites you on February 13 at 7:30 p.m. to a round table entitled “History Has a Remedy. Medicines and Pharmacists of Catalonia.”

This event is organized by the Uriach Foundation, in collaboration with the magazine Sàpiens and El Mundo de Ayer, and will be presented by Mr. Toni Soler, the popular host of the TV3 programs Polònia and Està Passant. Other participants in the round table will be Mr. Albert Figueras, Director of the Fundació Institut Català de Farmacologia, and Mr. Joaquín Uriach, President of the Uriach Group and trustee of our Foundation.

The event will take place in the Pau Gil Hall of the Sant Pau Modernist Complex, one of the key works of architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and one of the most emblematic landmarks of the city of Barcelona.

A unique opportunity to learn more about our history in an incomparable setting.