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For the Love of Aspirin

“If aspirin, a pill that can open up your heart and thin your blood, were invented today, it would sell like crazy—even for five or ten dollars a pill, and even if it just got rid of your headache. But it’s sold for two cents!”

After reading two articles about aspirin in Men’s Health magazine, John Higgins was ready to put in his own two cents. One article touted aspirin as the greatest medication ever because it can stop a heart attack without damaging the heart. Two months later, a second article said that aspirin is so important to men’s health that all men should have six bottles strategically placed in easy-to-reach spots hidden just about everywhere.

This struck John as ridiculous, so he wondered, “Where, on a man’s body, could he carry a few aspirin to save his life?” In his pocket, they’d be covered in lint. Wrapped in foil, they’d be just one more thing to forget. Shoes, even penny loafers, were out. A hat? Nope, who wears a hat? And that’s when it hit him—the wallet. Of course! Most men either carry or are close to their wallets 24/7.

So, what fits in a wallet?—money and credit cards. With that, John fashioned a prototype out of cardboard, like a thick credit card. He put it in the front slot but, when he closed the wallet, it got gigantic. Wallets are already too big. “My Irish grandmother in heaven must have guided my hands, because the next thing I did was put it in the top credit card slot. I turned away to take a call, and looked all over for the card. Then I tilted the wallet toward me and my mouth dropped open. I saw the prototype in the fold. There’s room—and enough for two!”

He called his best friend Ken Weinum with his bright idea and Ken, who had the money to back it, said “I’m in.” A patent attorney’s search came up empty-handed, and declared this invention too important to not be out there.

John showed and explained his crude prototype to an injection-molding company. It took a dozen tries on a CAD (computer aided design) program, but finally the design for the Re-Pillable Card was born. Like a credit card with a pillbox across the top, it can hold three pills in the left compartment and two on the right.

Because Men’s Health magazine had inspired his invention, John wanted to share his product with them first. After seven months of trying, “We were in it. All of a sudden, we had thousands of hits on our website and tens of thousands of orders. We still get half a dozen a week from that article. People must be reading the old article in doctors’ offices.”

Three months later, Diabetes magazine ran an article. The medication for diabetics didn’t fit in the original Re-Pillable Card, so at the suggestion of the editor, John created the Re-Pillable Max Card that fits in most wallets, but not all. “Since it’s so important to have your medicine with you at all times, if it doesn’t fit in your wallet, buy a new one! Take the Max Card down to Macy’s and try it out; make sure it fits.”

Then John received an e-mail from South America, written all in caps. Someone had bought two, and loved them. Now he wanted to buy hundreds of thousands. John thought, “Yeah, right.” A few months later, the same guy emailed to say he wanted 200,000 and where did John want the money transferred? John was still skeptical, until the funds hit his bank account a few hours later. His next e-mail showed what this customer wanted the 200,000 Re-Pillable Cards to look like: pewter gray, not John’s blue, with an engraving of the Bayer logo and, above that, the Levitra name and flame logo. Between the logos was a tagline in Spanish.

These went to Mexico City for Bayer Mexico. “They could order millions now. I wanted it to be aspirin, but my first hit was for ED (erectile dysfunction) pills.” John might still make it big with the aspirin makers soon. He is talking with Bayer Aspirin U.S. about plans to shrink-wrap the Re-Pillable Card as a value-added incentive to not buy generic.

The Re-Pillable Card is really catching on now, and each time a new chapter unfolds in the Re-Pillable story, it’s told in the local Nashua, New Hampshire, newspaper, where John is a hometown hero. “Here’s this little guy from New Hampshire exporting American-made products to Mexico. My congressman should be patting me on the back. That’s how NAFTA is supposed to work, as a two-way street.”

John has already sold well over 400,000 cards and was in the black after the first year. John and Ken’s initial investment of $25,000 paid for the first mold and they’ve kept it rolling from the sales that came in. They now have four molds, so they can make 250,000 cards a week. “Men’s Health was the key to everything: our initial sales, Diabetes, and Levitra. And we haven’t even spent a nickel on advertising.” At 59, this former print broker says he might retire yet. Not a bitter pill to swallow, eh?