History of aspirin Hermann Hildebrandt). In 1894, the young chemist Felix Hoffmann joined the pharmaceutical group. Dreser, Eichengrün and Hoffmann would be the key figures in the development of acetylsalicylic acid as the drug Aspirin (though their respective roles have been the subject of some contention). In 1897, Hoffmann started working to find a less irritating substitute for salicylic acid. It is generally accepted that he turned to this idea because his father was suffering the side effects of taking sodium salicylate for rheumatism. In 1853, Charles Frédéric Gerhardt had published the first methods to prepare acetylsalicylic acid. In the course of his
Obeticholic acid Obeticholic acid Obeticholic acid (abbreviated to OCA, trade name Ocaliva), is a semi-synthetic bile acid analogue which has the chemical structure 6α-ethyl-chenodeoxycholic acid. It is used as a drug to treat primary biliary cholangitis, and is undergoing development for several other liver diseases and related disorders. Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. hold the worldwide rights to develop OCA outside Japan and China, where it is licensed to Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma. The natural bile acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, was identified in 1999 as the most active physiological ligand for the farnesoid X receptor (FXR), which is involved in many physiological and pathological processes. A