"Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin, has been stuck in a rut:..."
More accurately that should read:
"Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin and co-inventing then widely commercializing heroin (diacetylmorphine), has been stuck in a rut:..."
Bayer's chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesised heroin just short of two weeks after that of aspirin in 1897. Bayer thought it 'heroic' and thus called it heroin then the company had the audacity to market it as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. The rest is history.
When discussing Bayer we should never forget this.
More accurately that should read:
"Bayer, the 160-year-old German company known for inventing aspirin and co-inventing then widely commercializing heroin (diacetylmorphine), has been stuck in a rut:..."
Bayer's chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesised heroin just short of two weeks after that of aspirin in 1897. Bayer thought it 'heroic' and thus called it heroin then the company had the audacity to market it as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. The rest is history.
When discussing Bayer we should never forget this.