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The Antidote
Book

The Antidote

A Small Competitor Challenges the Drug Giants

Barry Werth
Wall Street Journal Books, 2014

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Even if you regularly take a prescription drug, you might not consider the money, time, research and effort that went into creating and marketing your daily pill. But rest assured, somebody worked quite hard to create it. Journalist Barry Werth’s second study of the plucky start-up Vertex Pharmaceuticals follows Vertex founder Joshua Boger and his team in their quest to develop groundbreaking drugs for hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis. The saga has a happy outcome, but Vertex bled billions of dollars along the way. Werth could have cut his page count by a quarter or a third and not lost the essence of his tale. And when Boger steps down as CEO – when the hero of the story leaves the stage – the drama suffers. Still, Werth presents gripping insights into the pharmaceutical industry and the tortuous path pioneering drugs take to get to market. getAbstract recommends this eye-opening saga to investors, entrepreneurs, start-ups, students of finance and anyone fascinated by the complexities of the high-stakes pharmaceutical market.

Take-Aways

  • Joshua Boger left Merck in 1989 to found Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Massachusetts.
  • Boger believed that hepatitis C was a looming public health disaster and was determined to develop a drug to combat it.
  • In 2001, Vertex acquired Aurora Biosciences and launched its R&D in San Diego.

About the Author

Journalist Barry Werth wrote The Billion-Dollar Molecule, also about Vertex.

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