Aspirin

Felix Hoffmann, Bayer, Germany, US patent 644,077, filed 1899. The synthetic drug that launched the pharmaceutical era.

Overview

Bayer's Hoffmann acetylated salicylic acid into a gentler analgesic, patented in Germany 1899 and America as patent 644,077. The trademark Aspirin was stripped from Bayer as war reparations in 1919, becoming generic in the US. The drug became the world's most-used medicine, later finding cardiovascular uses. Arthur Eichengrun's contribution was long underplayed in the Nazi era. One pill sized Bayer's entire empire. Its expired patent is the generic-drug story's opening chapter.