ABSTRACT
Although humans have suffered from heartburn for millennia, gastroesophageal re ux disease, or GERD, has only been recently recognized as a disease. GERD is de ned as chronic symptoms or mucosal damage resulting from the abnormal re ux of gastric or duodenal contents into the esophagus. The disease and its treatment have been the target of aggressive pharmaceutical marketing to both professionals and consumers. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) as a class of medications are the third best-selling pharmaceutical drug worldwide.
