為更細緻地分析近代中國由中藥全面轉向西藥的過程，以及今日全球藥品內容趨一的源由，本文選擇二十世紀最重要且普遍使用的藥品「阿司匹靈」作為案例，詳細地追索它進入中國的過程，以及德國拜耳藥廠與中國新藥業間有關該藥的商標訴訟。本文發現，阿司匹靈在中國的經歷，正是該藥品向全球銷售過程的一個切面。從阿司匹靈的商標爭訟案，可看出製藥工業與眾不同的特性，當大部份的製造業竭力與國家保持一定距離之時，製藥工業卻從很早便仰賴國家力量來制訂與執行藥品研發的遊戲規則。因此，不論德國拜耳藥廠本身或上海新藥業公會，於阿司匹靈在中國發展的過程，均援引中國的《商標法》，試圖藉國家力量，為自己的商品取得在中國市場最好的保護。

To better understand the transformation from Chinese medicines to Western medicines used in health care in modern China, as well as the globalization of the drug industry in the past century and a half, this article examines “Aspirin,” the most important and widely-used pain-reliever in the twentieth century, as a case study. Focusing on its introduction to China and ensuing trade mark disputes, this article shows that by the 1930s the Chinese had already built up their own pharmaceutical industry and formed a nationwide trade association. Furthermore, the association used the name “new medicine” rather than “Western medicine” so as to distinguish their products from the foreign, imported drugs. Chinese pharmaceutical companies started their industry by copying foreign formulas including Aspirin, which led to lengthy litigation with I.G. Farben. Intriguingly, the Chinese eventually won their case by persuading the Chinese government that aspirin had become a commonly-used name for pain relievers and thus lost the essential distinction of a trade mark. Though this seems to be a typical case of Chinese indigenous enterprises versus a multinational corporation, this paper argues that these events reveal the astonishing degree to which pharmaceutical companies, whether indigenous or multinational, rely on the power of the state to protect their products.