Aspirin – The Story of a Wonder Drug

Aspirin – The Story of a Wonder Drug

Author: Diarmuid Jeffreys

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, UK

Pages: 277

Dedication: “For my parents”

Rating:

Presentation: 4, Language: 4, Relevance: 4, Depth: 3, Reputation: 3

This book focuses on the historical development of Aspirin, the commercial battles which raged for it in the 20^th century and the effects and side effects of this wonder drug. Though superseded by more effective and less problematic medicines like Paracetamol and Ibuprofen, Aspirin continues to be of immense use to millions of persons all over the world.

The bitter juice extracted from the bark of the willow tree had been used as medicine for fever and pain as early as the Sumerian civilization and its use became widespread in the Egyptian civilization. The knowledge of this traditional remedy was lost in the dark ages until it was reinvented by Rev Edward Stone in England in the 18^th century. Use of this liquid which contains salicylic acid was anti-pyretic (fever reducing), analgesic (pain killer) and anti-inflammatory. However, salicylic acid caused other intestinal problems like burning of the stomach etc. William Perkin, who invented the colour mauve prepared acetyl salicylic acid which is Aspirin. However, Perkin didn’t pursue the matter further and this was kept forgotten until 1899 when three chemists from Bayer, Felix Hofmann, Arthur Eichengrun and Heinrich Dreser re-invented the drug and patented it. The patent was brought down by a British court in 1905 indirectly prompted by the increased hold of the German chemical industry on the English public.

During the first world war, the assets of Bayer in the US was confiscated and sold out to Sterling Products, an American company including the Bayer trademark. Bayer and other German pharmaceutical majors merged in the 20s and formed the cartel IG Farben which was notorious for running concentration camps and unethical medical testing on hapless Jews in these camps during the Hitler era. Germany was crushed and IG Farben was dissolved to make three pharma majors, Bayer, Hoechst and BASF.

Aspirin was later found to be causing bleeding in the intestines by affecting blood’s capacity to clot. Also, it had a small but quantifiable chance of causing the Reyes’ Syndrome in children and it is not prescribed for children below 16 years of age. The drugs ability to reduce blood’s tendency to clot made it an essential medicine for heart patients due to the reduced chances of blocks being formed in the arteries. Due to these deficiencies, Paracetamol (N-acetyl-para-aminophenol) and Ibuprofen (2-(4-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid) made headways in the field and continues to rule the roost.

Jeffreys explains the way in which Aspirin works in the human body. Aspirin blocks the body’s production of cyclooxygenase (COX), the enzyme that generates prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. Two distinct kinds of COX was identified of which COX 2 causes pain. Hence the analgesic effect.

An overall good book, interesting to laymen too.

Overall rating: 4/5