Thank George Rieveschl for Benadryl!

Filed in archive Allergy Medications on May 20, 2006

Did you know that Benadryl, a common drug for allergy relief, has been discovered 60 years ago, and was first marketed in May 1946? The University of Cincinnati, where the medication was discovered, honored George Rieveschl last week for his discovery. Like many other discoveries, its discovery was unexpected; Rieveschl was originally working on a drug against muscle spasms, and ended up with an antihistamine.

"It was hundreds of times more active against histamine than the other drugs we were looking at," Rieveschl said. "It was obvious that it had a special feeling toward antagonizing histamine, and with the activity it had against histamine, it ought to be tried out against allergies and things."

Rieveschl shared his patent with Fred Huber, a doctoral candidate who was his lab assistant, and Parke, Davis and Co. - now part of Pfizer Inc. - started marketing Benadryl in May 1946. The patent for Benadryl expired in 1964, and it's now sold over the counter.

Read more about Rieveschl and his discovery of Benadryl from the Cincinnati Post.