Bayer's role in the opioid story

Bayer's role in the opioid story dates back to the origins of synthetic opioid manufacturing. In 1897, chemist Felix Hoffmann, working under Heinrich Dreser at Bayer's pharmacological laboratory, synthesized heroin while attempting to produce codeine. Hoffmann developed both heroin and aspirin within roughly the same two-week period that year. 

By 1898, Bayer began commercially selling heroin as a pain reliever and cough suppressant, marketing it as a safer and more effective alternative to morphine, whose addictive properties were already known at the time. Bulk production for medicinal purposes ran from roughly 1898 until 1910, and Bayer continued promoting heroin for children's coughs and colds until 1912. 

The company's branding choice mattered: it was marketed under the trademarked name "heroin" rather than its chemical name, diacetylmorphine. As with many who took it for legitimate medical reasons, people developed addictions essentially as soon as the drug was prescribed. 

The shift away from Bayer's control came after WWI: under the Treaty of Versailles, Bayer lost much of its trademark rights to the drug. The U.S. ultimately banned heroin outright in 1924, and it has been banned in most countries since the 1930s due to its recognized addictiveness. 

This episode is often cited as an early example of pharmaceutical industry incentives — commercial marketing outpacing honest risk disclosure — a dynamic that recurs in my research into the Purdue/Sackler era of the more recent opioid crisis, though the regulatory and scientific context differed enormously between the two eras.