The Humble Aspirin “Drug of the Century” Just
Keeps Getting Better
Aspirin is probably the most successful drug ever. It was
also the first drug ever, and was the founding product of
what has become the most profitable industry the world has
ever seen. These folk are the pharmaceutical conglomerates,
the drug majors or Big Pharma.
The giant pharmaceutical companies of today are a two-faced
Janus. In some respects worse than Big Tobacco, but unlike
Big Tobacco they do have one major redeeming feature.
They save countless lives with the drugs they make. In so
doing they reap untold wealth for their management and shareholders,
while holding a suffering humanity to ransom. Through their
wealth and power they exercise an undue and mostly malign
influence over governments worldwide and, worst of all, they
operate beyond the law. The record shows there is hardly any
illegal act that they have not stooped to in their pursuit
of profit at the cost of all too many lives. If you think
I exaggerate, just contemplate the single fact that over 100,000
Americans die every year in US hospitals from correctly prescribed
drugs. That’s quite apart from any Constant Gardner-style
skulduggery they may get up to in the Third World.
The start of all this and the world’s first and most
successful drug was Aspirin, patented by Bayer in 1899, over
a century ago. Aspirin has been off patent now for over 80
years and costs but a few pennies. As a consequence
the pharmaceutical industry badly wants to find a new drugs
to do the same thing, but for which they can charge a lot
more money. Unfortunately for them the oldest drug in the
world just goes on and on getting better! Scientists are now
finding that aspirin has a compelling role in the prevention
of skin cancer. It has also just been found to help prevent
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In addition
to being an effective anti-infection agent recent findings
show aspirin plays a significant part in preventing other
cancers as well, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, prostate
and lung cancer. In the early 90’s aspirin was shown
to have a very significant effect in preventing death from
heart attack, vascular disease and ischemic stroke. Since
then doctors routinely prescribe daily low dose aspirin. All
this on top of its original use as an analgesic.
600 x Cheaper
Here we have an over-the-counter drug that is exceptionally
cheap and outperforms other drugs in the same field, which
are sold at excessively high prices. A bottle of 500 low dose
enterically coated aspirin will cost you something like $6.75,
that is $0.01 per pill. Celebrex, the most recent NSAID retails
at somewhere around $6.00 per pill. That’s 600 times
more expensive.
Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid is a derivative of salicylic
acid that is a mild non-narcotic analgesic used for the relief
of headache, muscle and joint aches. The drug works by inhibiting
the production of prostaglandins and thromboxanes, the hormones
responsible for the transmission of pain and for blood clotting.
It is probably the best known member of the family of non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs known as NSAIDs.
The Greeks Knew it......
Hippocrates, the Greek physician, wrote in the 5th century
BC about a bitter powder extracted from willow bark that could
ease aches and pains and reduce fevers. This remedy is also
mentioned in texts from ancient Sumeria, Egypt and Assyria.
Native Americans used it too. The active extract of the bark,
salicin, was first isolated in 1828. While the extract was
effective, it caused digestive problems, which could become
serious at high doses leading to stomach bleeding and even
death. It was not until 1897 researcher Arthur Eichengrun
and Felix Hoffman, a research assistant at Friedrich Bayer
& Co. in Germany came up with a synthesised version, which
reduced the negative effects. Aspirin was patented on March
6, 1899 and marketed alongside another of Hoffman’s
products, an acetylated synthetic of morphine called Heroin
he invented 11 days after Aspirin. Unsurprisingly Heroin was
initially the most popular of the two painkillers and it was
commonly believed to be the healthier. As Heroin’s addictive
qualities became more known aspirin led the field from then
on to become the No.1 drug worldwide.
Despite our familiarity with aspirin, and the fact it is so
readily available, it should be remembered that it is still
a powerful drug and should be treated with respect. A grown
man would need to take about 4,000 gm to kill himself so that
is not really the problem. More commonly it can cause stomach
upset and stomach bleeding if not monitored by a physician.
However the use of enterically coated aspirin can prevent
this. While aspirin therapy is known to reduce the incidence
of heart attack and ischemic stroke, which accounts for 80%
of all strokes, there is a downside to be taken into account.
As a blood thinner it can slightly increase the risk of hemorraghic
stroke. Low dose aspirin therapy ranges from 81 mg to 300
mg. A daily dose of 81 mg is what doctors recommend against
heart disease. Larger daily doses are required for the cancer
and other benefits. It is important to note that no one should
self-medicate with aspirin on a regular basis without consulting
a doctor. Aspirin should never be taken by anyone on other
anti-coagulent drugs, like coumadin, without consulting their
doctor.
A Gnashing of Teeth....
Despite marketing forces aspirin is reclaiming the spotlight
as a potent anti-inflammatory and protector against cardiovascular
events, and now cancers too. And, at such derisory cost that
a sound not unlike the gnashing of teeth can be heard emanating
from the boardrooms of Big Pharma. There is now a mark up
on the actual product cost of current drugs around 200,000%,
in some cases as much as 600,000% (Xanax). There is obviously
something badly wrong with the system, whatever the pharmaceutical
companies and regulatory bodies may claim. Given a none-too-modest
mark up of 1,500% all concerned ought to make a tidy sum,
you’d have thought. At that level drugs would be affordable
to almost everyone, even if they weren’t covered by
insurance. Why can’t we be satisfied with that?
But it’s not only the colossal level of waste and profiteering
that’s going on, that’s so awful, it’s the
fact the drug majors just don’t want to come up with
the drugs we need for these killer diseases. To do that would
cost more money without the guarantee of success. No, just
like Hollywood, what Big Pharma wants is an assured Blockbuster.
And so it is that billions are spent to bring us the pharmaceutical
equivalent of “SuperMan III”, drugs which
we don’t need and are no improvement on existing ones.
Old drugs get tweaked just enough to acquire a new patent.
Or, rather than drugs to combat the killer diseases these
billions go on “life style” drugs to make us slimmer
and sexier.
What the World Needs Now....
What the world is crying out for is a repeat of that first
drug. Just like aspirin, cheap, effective and still going
strong a century later. We need these drugs a hundred times
over. That way we could really make a difference to world
health, making a real dent in cancer, malaria, diabetes, heart
disease and AIDS. Bayer must have benefited big time from
Aspirin. The world certainly has. But I doubt they look at
it like that. No, they would bemoan the fact that they couldn’t
finaglerhae the patent for 40 years more at 200,000% profit.
That’s what the shareholders want isn’t it? The
rest of us can go hang.
