Ibuprofen

Ibuprofen belongs to a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic. It has excellent anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic effect with less adverse reactions. It has been widely used in the world, as the world's best-selling non-prescription drugs. It, together with aspirin and paracetamol are listed as the three key antipyretic analgesics products. In our country, it is mainly used in pain alleviation and anti-rheumatism, etc. It has much less applications in the treatment of cold and fever compared with paracetamol and aspirin. There are a dozens of pharmaceutical companies qualified for production of ibuprofen in China. But the bulk of the domestic market sales of ibuprofen have been occupied by Tianjin Sino-US Company.
The Ibuprofen was co-discovered by Dr. Stewart Adams (later he becomes a professor and won the Medal of the British Empire) and his team including CoLinBurrows and Dr. John Nicholson. The aim of the initial study was to develop a "super aspirin" to obtain an alternative for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that is comparable to that of aspirin but with less serious adverse reactions. For other drugs such as phenylbutazone, it has a high risk of causing adrenal suppression and other adverse events such as gastrointestinal ulcers. Adams decided to look for a drug with good gastrointestinal resistance, which is particularly important for all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Phenyl acetate drugs have aroused people's interest. Although some of these drugs have been found to be at risk of causing ulcers based on the dog's test, Adams is aware of that this phenomenon may be due to a relatively long half-life of the drug clearance. In this class of drugs there is a compound – ibuprofen, which has a relatively short half-life, sustaining only 2 hours. Among the screened alternative drugs, although it is not the most effective, it is the most secure. In 1964, ibuprofen had become the most promising alternative to aspirin.