The Antidote Inside the World Of New Pharma

This is the Moneyball of the pharma world, the story of one drug companyâÈçs quest to transform the pharmaceutical industry and a deeply revealing look into a world where breakneck capitalism meets life-saving medicine.The $325 billion-a-year pharmaceutical business is AmericaâÈçs most challenging and one of its most profitable. It is tougher in just about every way than any other enterprise: from the towering biological risks inherent in its mission to treat disease; to the thirty-to-one failure rate in bringing out a successful medicine after a candidate clears all the hurdles to get to human testing; to the billion-dollar-plus cost of ramping up a successful product; to operating in the worldâÈçs most highly regulated industry with the possible exception of nuclear power. The Antidote tells the story of Vertex, a maverick drug company led by the charismatic Joshua Boger and a small group of entrepreneurial young scientists who broke off from Merck when it was the worldâÈçs best drug makerâÈ'indeed the most admired business in AmericaâÈ'because they thought they could make drugs better. Building upon his widely praised The Billion-Dollar Molecule, Barry Werth captures the full scope of VertexâÈçs twenty-five-year drive to deliver breakthrough medicines and transform the drug industry. The Antidote draws upon unprecedented inside reporting spanning more than two decades to provide a groundbreaking close-up of VertexâÈçs inner workings and the ferocious but indispensable world it inhabits.