The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine & 100 Years of Rampant Competition

by Charles C. Mann, Mark L. Plummer

No drug in the world outsells aspirin. With billions of dollars at stake, and no medically significant differences among the hundreds of brands around the globe, rival drug makers have been driven to the extremes of corporate warfare. Authors Mann and Plummer look inside this world of relentless competition to show the ploys, the battles, the bursts of extraordinary marketing, advertising and litigation that have resulted - and relate the unique and little-known medical history of the drug itself. "The Aspirin Wars" penetrates the wilder shores of capitalism to reveal the essence of business competition at its canniest.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Charles C. Mann is a correspondent for Science and The Atlantic Monthly, and has cowritten four previous books including Noah’s Choice: The Future of Endangered Species and The Second Creation . A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has won awards from the American Bar Association, the Margaret Sanger Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among others. His writing was selected for The Best American Science Writing 2003 and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003. He lives with his wife and their children in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though it's about 30 years old, this is still timely. A great history of advertising medicine. The difference between OTC and prescribed. And excellent discussion of the difficulties of proving or disproving the effectiveness of medicines. Add in some bureaucratic conflicts, world wars, and economic competition and it's a great book. Lots to think about.

[Claudie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bon. J'abandonne. j'aime pas abandonner mais j'abandonne.
J'ai bien essayé de m'y atteler mais, décidément, c'est trop un empilement de noms, de faits en détails, bien trop indigestes et lassants.
Je pense que l'histoire de l'aspirine doit être intéressante, mais pas racontée de cette façon-là.

[Danielle]

I'm reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks now, and really enjoying it; this is another book written by a science journalist about an important, but not well-known, medical development. Sounds interesting.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got 70 pages in and gave up. I heard the author on the radio and it sounded really interesting. Thirty minutes on the radio is super interesting, but a whole book was to much. got boring and I gave up.