According to NYTimes:"George Rieveschl, was an assistant professor researching muscle-relaxing drugs at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1940s when he realized the powerful potential of that 19-syllable antihistamine compound, then being tested as a muscle relaxer.
Because he had invented the drug before he worked for the company, Dr. Rieveschl received a 5 percent royalty for the 17-year length of the patent. Based on sales that rose to about $6 million a year by the early 1960s, that proved quite lucrative for him.
“If I had found an art job back in the ’30s, I would have taken it,” Dr. Rieveschl told The Cincinnati Post. “It seemed like bad luck at the time, but it ended up working out pretty well.”
References:
George Rieveschl, 91, Allergy Reliever, Dies. NYTimes.
Image source: Diphenhydramine structure, Wikipedia, public domain.
