By: History.com Editors

1899

Bayer patents aspirin

History.com Editors

Bayer aspirin tablets dissolve in a glass in Bonn, Germany,

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Published: November 24, 2009

Last Updated: March 08, 2025

The German company Bayer patents aspirin on March 6, 1899. Now the most common drug in household medicine cabinets, acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a chemical found in the bark of willow trees.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-19th century, it was used sparingly due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to damage the stomach.

This Day In History: 03/06/1899 - Bayer Patents Aspirin

The first American raid on Berlin during World War II occurred on March 6th according to Russ Mitchell in this video clip from "This Day in History". Along with this first raid, Bayer trademarked the name aspirin which became a miracle drug. However the trademark eventually expired, and the name became universal. Famous TV person Walter Cronkite made his last appearance on television this day, and inventor Clarence Birdseye introduced the first pre-packaged, frozen foods to the American people on this day.

In 1897, Bayer employee Felix Hoffmann found a way to create a stable form of the drug that was easier and more pleasant to take. (Some evidence shows that Hoffmann’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.

Timeline

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1475

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1857

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1902

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1945

Dutch Resistance ambushes SS officer

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1951

The espionage trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins

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1953

Georgy Malenkov succeeds Stalin

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1974

Helen Thomas named UPI’s White House bureau chief, the first woman to hold that title for a wire agency

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1981

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1982

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1983

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1986

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1987

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Citation Information

Article title
Bayer patents aspirin
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 24, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
March 08, 2025
Original Published Date
November 24, 2009

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