Product Description

Throughout the world we pop more than 200 billion of these little white pills every year. Aspirin is effective not only against everyday ailments, such as headaches and fever, but also as a preventative treatment for heart attacks, strokes, and even some types of cancers. Add to this its beneficiary role in a host of other conditions from Alzheimer's to gum disease, and you have a medicine of unparalleled importance to humanity, not to mention big business. Yet until 1971 we did not even know how Aspirin worked. In this fascinating and informative book Diarmuid Jeffreys follows the surprising and dramatic story of the drug from its origins in ancient Egypt, through its industrial development at the end of the nineteenth century and its key role in the great flu pandemic of 1918 to its subsequent exploitation by the pharmaceutical conglomerates.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1934048 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* According to British journalist Jeffreys' well-documented book, aspirin was born a little more than 100 years ago. That is, the word aspirin was coined in 1899 as a label for a new product, acetylsalicylic acid, manufactured by the German textile dye and pharmaceutical company Bayer. The concoction had been a known pain and fever reliever for well more than 6,000 years, but it took Bayer, which would eventually lose control of its baby in America for more than 75 years, to create the very first drug that owed its existence to a commercial rather than a scientific or medical ethic. Yes, aspirin was the earliest offspring of the increasingly uncomfortable yet wildly profitable marriage of medicine and commerce. What with Americans knocking back about 80 billion (yes, billion) 300 mg aspirin tablets a year, to say nothing of even more billions taken throughout the rest of the world, the story of this little white pill makes fascinating reading. Besides the drug's widely known medical applications for pain and fever relief, heart attack and stroke prevention, and more, its colorful history includes drama, pathos, plot twists, humor, intrigue and even a handful of scurrilous and despicable characters. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'Fascinating ... Aspirin appears to be one of the most useful drugs ever discovered. Thanks to the work of all the scientists so deservedly recalled in this books, it is also extremely cheap: in fact no drug is cheaper. Perhaps there is something in the notion of providence after all' Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph 'This biography of aspirin has some cracking factoids' Scotland on Sunday 'An enthralling read ... fascinating ... the author pieces the jigsaw together in thriller style' David O'Donoghue, Sunday Business Post 'He tells a story which blends politics, big business, social and medical history, greed, incredible dedication and human folly in a lively page-turner read' Irish Times

About the Author
Diarmuid Jeffreys is a writer, journalist and television producer who has made current affairs and documentary programmes for the BBC, Channel 4 and others, including Newsnight and the Money Programme. He is also the author of The Bureau: Inside the Modern FBI. He lives with his wife and children near Lewes in East Sussex.