Aspirin Coating May Impact Drug's Effectiveness, University of Pennsylvania Study

Researchers are challenging the common medical belief that some people's genes make them resistant to the heart-protective benefits of aspirin, reporting in a study that the coating on some tablets is the likely cause. In a report involving 400 healthy patients screened for their response to a single dose of either plain aspirin or a coated pill, "We couldn't find any people who were truly resistant," said Garret FitzGerald, head of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and senior author of the report.