One hundred years of aspirin.

Acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized by Gerhardt in 1853 and even put on the market during the 1880s by the firm Merck.1 Yet the proper history of this medicine begins only in 1897, now more than a hundred years ago, when this miracle amongst medicines was again synthesized at the dyestuffs factory of Friedrich Bayer and the chemical factory of Friedrich von Heyden. About eighteen months later at Bayer they provided this chemical substance with a brand name: Aspirin. The story of the development of Aspirin at Bayer is well known and has been told over and over again. Felix Hoffmann was painstakingly looking for a substitute for salicylic acid because his father, who suffered from rheumatism, hated taking this medicine. Hoffmann succeeded in his endeavour after actively searching for some time: on 10 August 1897 he synthesized acetylsalicylic acid. The next step was the pharmaceutical trial of this remedy. Bayer's pharmacist, Heinrich Dreser, took care of this, and after tests on animals and himself he discovered the excellent sedative and anti-febrile properties of this substance. On 23 January 1899 they decided to give this substance the brand name of Aspirin and finally, on 6 March 1899, this was registered at the Kaiserlichen Patentsamt Berlin. The dyestuffs factory was able to put acetylsalicylic acid on the market as an over-the-counter analgesic and remedy for rheumatism.2 However, was the discovery of this medicine really the result of the actions of the two people mentioned above? A letter from the chemist Arthur Eichengrun (sent from the concentration camp Theresienstadt) throws a different light on the question. Was this discovery not in reality much more the result of teamwork, of trial and error and of intrigues? Later publications and research in the archives of Bayer sustain Eichengriin's opinion. In this "historical note" the accepted story of the discovery of Aspirin will be confronted with the material available from Bayer's archives on the one hand and some later published historical documents on the other.