By the time he was in his 40s, Perry Davis was an entrepreneur who had tried, unsuccessfully, to start multiple businesses; and those failures had left him $4,500 in debt – roughly more than $160,000 today. In 1839, his bad luck continued when he then became ill with debilitating pain. Seeking even just any little bit of relief, he mixed up a concoction, containing mostly opiates and alcohol – a mix that would later become known around the world as, “Perry Davis’ Vegetable Pain Killer.” And Davis would become known as the guy who trademarked the word, ‘painkiller’.

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