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N0KFQ > TODAY 06.03.15 16:00l 57 Lines 2574 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 49213_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 6
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<VE1MPF<VE9MPF<N0KFQ
Sent: 150306/1455Z 49213@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1899
Bayer patents aspirin
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.
Now the most common drug in household medicine cabinets,
acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a chemical found in
the bark of willow trees. In its primitive form, the active
ingredient, salicin, was used for centuries in folk medicine,
beginning in ancient Greece when Hippocrates used it to relieve
pain and fever. Known to doctors since the mid-19thcentury, it
was used sparingly due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to
damage the stomach.
In 1897, Bayer employee Felix Hoffman found a way to create a
stable form of the drug that was easier and more pleasant to
take. (Some evidence shows that Hoffman's work was really done by
a Jewish chemist, Arthur Eichengrun, whose contributions were
covered up during the Nazi era.) After obtaining the patent
rights, Bayer began distributing aspirin in powder form to
physicians to give to their patients one gram at a time. The
brand name came from "a" for acetyl, "spir" from the spirea plant
(a source of salicin) and the suffix "in," commonly used for
medications. It quickly became the number-one drug worldwide.
Aspirin was made available in tablet form and without a
prescription in 1915. Two years later, when Bayer's patent
expired during the First World War, the company lost the
trademark rights to aspirin in various countries. After the
United States entered the war against Germany in April 1917, the
Alien Property Custodian, a government agency that administers
foreign property, seized Bayer's U.S. assets. Two years later,
the Bayer company name and trademarks for the United States and
Canada were auctioned off and purchased by Sterling Products
Company, later Sterling Winthrop, for $5.3 million.
Bayer became part of IG Farben, the conglomerate of German
chemical industries that formed the financial heart of the Nazi
regime. After World War II, the Allies split apart IG Farben, and
Bayer again emerged as an individual company. Its purchase of
Miles Laboratories in 1978 gave it a product line including
Alka-Seltzer and Flintstones and One-A-Day Vitamins. In 1994,
Bayer bought Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter business,
gaining back rights to the Bayer name and logo and allowing the
company once again to profit from American sales of its most
famous product.
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