1897: Looking for a remedy for his fathers rheumatism, a young German chemist named Felix Hoffman synthesizes a stable form of acetylsalicylic acid in a laboratory in Berlin. The head of Bayers pharmacological institute, Heinrich Dreser, lambastes Hoffmanns discovery as typical Berlin hot air; the product is worthless. Bayer soon names the product aspirin, and it becomes the best-selling drug of all time. This is why modern drug companies always retain the writes of all drugs they have synthesized because of the unknown future effect of there new medication.
David Pilling, Pill of the Century, The Financial Times, February 13/February 14, 1999, p. W7; http://www.bayeraspirin.com/questions/hundred_aspirin.htm