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| Born | 7 September 1844 Southend |
| Died | 25 June 1894 | Age 49 |
Charles Romley Alder Wright 1874
Charles Wright first synthesized Diamorphine in 1874 while working at St. Mary's hospital in London.Wright was searching for a nonaddictive alternative to the medicine morphine and soon discovered a more potent version of morphine by boiling anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride.
Effective
Charles tested his new drug with colleague F. M. Pierce but observations showed it was not without its own side effects. Wright felt it was not right to pursue another drug with unwanted effects like the drug he wanted to replace, morphine. So he shelved the drug.
Bayer
These side effects did not deter Heinrich Dreser, a German chemist at Bayer Laboratories. He continued to test diacetylmorphine and Bayer marketed it as 'Heroin' an analgesic and "sedative for coughs" in 1888.
But when its addictive quality became a problem , Bayer ceased its production in 1913.
