In the same year, Ahmed Hegazy submitted his invention (in collaboration with Klaus-Dieter Rämsch) of an extended release, solid medicinal preparation of nifedipine to the German Patent Office in Munich, patenting the “use of nifedipine crystals with a specific surface area of 1-4 m2/g for the production of solid medicinal formulations for achieving long-lasting blood levels for the oral treatment of hypertension by administration 1 to 2 times”, an invention that became known as Adalat retard from Bayer (see letter Dr Schauerte). In that formulation, the active ingredient is released over a period of up to 36 hours. With the increasing incidence of heart disease in that period—heart failure became the first cause of death in West Germany—and the new  formulation, the medication replaced Aspirine in the 1990s as the biggest single product of Bayer. As Alexander Mey noted, "[d]iese Maßnahmen führten dazu, dass der Umsatz im Jahr 2000 auf 1,7 Mrd. US-$ stieg, obwohl das Präparat bereits ein Vierteljahrhundert am Markt war." On 14 October 1991, Hegazy was awarded the Otto Bayer Medal—no relation to the company founder—for his work solubilizing poorly soluble active ingredients such as nifedipine, a prize, that the Bayer Group has been using to honor excellent research since 1984. By 2020, 528 researchers had received the award. A 1995 US lawsuit, in which Hegazy defended his patent, found that Pfizers Procardia XL product was also based on his European patent No. 0047899, United States Patent 5264446.
Many other historical names for this condition (and Vincents angina) have occurred, including: "acute membranous gingivitis", "fusospirillary gingivitis", " fusospirillosis", "fusospirochetal gingivitis",  "phagedenic gingivitis", "Vincent stomatitis",  "Vincent gingivitis", and "Vincent infection".In the late 1980s-early 1990s, it was originally thought that some necrotizing periodontal diseases seen in severely affected AIDS patients were strictly a sequela of HIV, and it was even called HIV-associated periodontitis. It is now understood that its association with HIV/AIDS was due to the immunocompromised status of such patients; it also occurs with higher prevalence in association with other diseases in which the immune system is compromised. See also
Canker sore
Mouth ulcer

References


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