Rogaine, better known in medical circles as Minoxidil, was discovered as part of the search for better anti-hypertensives. A vasodilator, Rogaine causes your blood vessels to loosen up, inducing a drop in your blood pressure. Coincidentally, it also makes hair grow. Some lucky biochemist noted this, instantly transforming the humdrum vasodilatory results of Minoxidil into the volcanic eruption of cash that is Rogaine. This is the bizarre magic of pharmacology, a world in which side effects and desired effects often switch roles, and transforms a drug from a middling vasodilator to the salvation for those wishing for a more hirsute image.
The world of drugs is astonishingly replete with these stories. Viagra was an attempt at combating high blood pressure, Dramamine was (and still is) an anti-histamine. Bimatoprost was designed to combat glaucoma, but is better known today as "Latisse," as a mechanism to grow longer and stronger eyelashes. These are the good surprises, the marketable variations that keep pharmacological research into orphan diseases and concepts viable.
But this doesn't explain some of the strange products. The substances where you know someone, somewhere, just decided to start playing with it on a whim. A classic example of this is Protamine sulfate, a counter-agent to Heparin which we use to address the bleeding that can be a side effect of administration. Protamine sulfate is an interesting little molecule, small, positively charged, and derived from fish sperm. Yes, I said fish sperm. The swimmer's swimmers.
Someone somewhere decided to see what fish sperm could do in the context of anti-coagulative poisoning. Someone somewhere cut out the testes of a fish, isolated chemicals, and derived a use. Someone somewhere STILL does this, in order to provide us with a source of Protamine Sulfate.
And this, my friends, is science.
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