Happy Birthday - Aspirin_March 6
On this day in 1899, the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers
Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German
pharmaceutical company Friedrich Bayer & Co.
Much earlier in the 19th century, scientists
had identified salicylic acid as the ingredient that, for centuries, had made
willow bark one of the more popular treatments for pain and fever. But it had a
terrible taste and tended to damage a patient’s stomach. In the fall of 1897,
however, a chemist in Bayer’s lab named Felix Hoffmann, had been able to create a
stable form of the drug, one that was safer, more palatable and just as
importantly, able to be mass produced.
As it turned out, Hoffmann perfected another
drug that same month, one that executives at Bayer felt had much more potential
than Aspirin. It was a medication designed to be a non-addictive replacement
for morphine and marketed to suppress heavy coughs and relieve the pain of
childbirth. Bayer named it Heroin.
Initially, Aspirin was sold in powder form, a
gram at a time, and only through prescriptions.
In 1915, though, it became available as a pill that could be bought over
the counter. A few years later, a devastating flu pandemic started spreading
around the world, which sent sales of Aspirin skyrocketing. After World War I, however, Bayer was forced
to sell its overseas properties as part of Germany’s war reparations, and Bayer
lost its trademark. Aspirin became the more generic aspirin.
Another chapter of the aspirin story unfolded
after World War II, in 1949, three years after Hoffmann’s death. Arthur
Eichengrun, a more senior scientist at Bayer when Hoffman made his discovery,
released a paper saying that Hoffmann had been working under his direction and
that he, Eichengrun, had pushed senior executives at the company to support
aspirin. The speculation was that Eichengrun was not given credit for his role
in the development of aspirin because he was Jewish. (During World War II, he had spent a year and
a half in a concentration camp.) As
recently as 1999, a research paper supported Eichengrun’s story, but Bayer has
stuck with the version in which Hoffman is aspirin’s sole creator.
Aspirin’s dominance as an over-the-counter
painkiller began to fade in the 1960s, particularly when ibuprofen hit the
market. But it began a comeback the next
decade when clinical trials showed that aspirin could lower the risk of strokes
and heart attacks and doctors began recommending an aspirin a day as wise
preventive medicine. More recent research suggested that a daily aspirin may
also help lower the risk of developing certain cancers, although experts say
that because of its potential side effects of bleeding in the GI tract, the
regimen should only be followed at a doctor’s recommendation.
The Friedrich Bayer & Co., long a German
dye manufacturer, ensures its place as a leader in the budding pharmaceutical
industry when the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers acetylsalicylic
acid under the trademark “Aspirin.”
Much earlier in the 19th century, scientists
had identified salicylic acid as the ingredient that, for centuries, had made
willow bark one of the more popular treatments for pain and fever. But it had a terrible taste and tended to damage
a patient’s stomach. In the fall of
1897, however, a chemist in Bayer’s lab named Felix Hoffman had been able to
create a stable form of the drug, one that is safer, more palatable and just as
importantly, able to be mass produced.
Bayer names it Aspirin. (As it turned out, Hoffman perfected another
drug that same month, one that executives at Bayer felt had much more potential
than aspirin. It was a medication designed to be a non-addictive replacement
for morphine and marketed to suppress heavy coughs and relieve the pain of
childbirth. Bayer named it heroin.)
Initially, Aspirin is sold in powder form, a
gram at a time, and only through prescriptions.
In 1915, though, it becomes available as a pill that can be bought over
the counter. A few years later, a
devastating flu pandemic starts spreading around the world, sending sales of
Aspirin skyrocketing. After World War I,
however, Bayer is forced to sell its overseas properties as part of Germany’s
war reparations, and Bayer loses its trademark.
Aspirin becomes the more generic aspirin.
Another chapter of the aspirin story unfolded
after World War II, in 1949, three years after Hoffman’s death. Arthur
Eichengrun, a more senior scientist at Bayer when Hoffman made his discovery,
released a paper saying that Hoffman had been working under his direction and
that he, Eichengrun, had pushed senior executives at the company to support
aspirin. The speculation was that Eichengrun was not given credit for his role
in the development of aspirin because he was Jewish. (During World War II, he had spent a year and
a half in a concentration camp.) As
recently as 1999, a research paper supported Eichengrun’s story, but Bayer has
stuck with the version in which Hoffman is aspirin’s sole creator.
Aspirin’s dominance as an over-the-counter painkiller began to
fade in the 1960s, particularly when ibuprofen hit the market. But it began a comeback the next decade when
clinical trials showed that aspirin could lower the risk of strokes and heart
attacks and doctors began recommending an aspirin a day as wise preventive
medicine.
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