The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma
Barry Werth relies on more than two decades of inside reporting in this relevant and well-received book. He gives us an unprecedented look at the upstart pharmaceutical company Vertex, as well as the ferocious but necessary world of Big Pharma in which it operates.
Joshua Boger left Merck, then America's most admired company, in 1989 to found a drug company that would challenge industry giants and transform health care. In The Billion-Dollar Molecule, a celebrated classic of science and business journalism, Werth described the company's tumultuous early days during the AIDS crisis. Now he's back to share a gripping tale of Vertex's brave perseverance and final triumph.
The $325 billion pharmaceutical industry is one of the most difficult and profitable in the United States. It’s riskier and more rigorous at just about every stage than any other business, from the towering biological uncertainties inherent in its mission to treat disease; to the 30-to-1 failure rate in bringing out a successful medicine even after a molecule clears all the hurdles to get to human testing; to the multibillion-dollar cost of ramping up a successful product; to operating in the world’s most regulated industry, matched only by nuclear power.
Werth encapsulates Vertex's twenty-five-year quest to develop breakthrough drugs. The Antidote is a powerful inside look at one of the most intriguing and important business stories of recent decades, at a time when America is struggling to maintain its innovative edge.
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