A review by sarahbowman101
Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug by Diarmuid Jeffreys

3.0

I sometimes wonder why I read books like this. I slogged through the first part of this book very slowly, and often forgot names and dates. The book did get more interesting while talking about Bayer’s connections with IG Farben and the Nazis. Without the lucrative aspirin sales that spiked after WWI, IG Farben wouldn’t have had the huge sums of money to donate to the Nazi party and things may have turned out differently. An IG Farben lead “scientist” was also convicted of war crimes for some pretty despicable things during the holocaust, and upon his release from jail went on to become the head of Bayer. It is an interesting look at the pharmaceutical world, branding, generics, and marketing. You may not look at the rows and rows of OTC drugs in the same way again. I know I won’t.