Book Critique: The Antidote

     Of all the medicine related books I have read that were advertised in the Ayn Rand catalogs, The Billion-Dollar Molecule is my favorite.  Author Barry Werth returns 20 years later with his sequel, The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma.

Both books focus on the interworkings of Vertex Pharmaceuticals--a science based drug design start-up in the first book, and a publicly traded, stock market success story in the second.

Vertex was created by scientific and business genius, Joshua Boger as a novel approach to bringing medicines to market.  Former executive Matthew Emmens commented, "When you think of this industry, of all the successes there are, it's mostly opportunism, either scientifically or from a commercial sense.  Very little of it can be planned.  Every time we've tried to plan--say, 'I'm gonna be the best at lipid-lowering agents, or I'm gonna be the best at hypertension, or something else'--it's never worked."(p. 316)

The company's first product launches were two drugs to fight AIDS.  As the years progressed, Vertex became a leader in treating hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis.  Medicine for cystic fibrosis (a genetic based disorder that inhibits the respiratory system) is especially of interest to me--as some of the members of my family are carriers of those genes.

Werth's first book is an excellent read, but The Antidote not only maintains a similar quality, it also has the advantage of being pharmaceutically up to date with a 2014 copyright.

Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter

Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) for being the fuel of my mind