The Billion-dollar Molecule by Barry Werth

The Billion-dollar Molecule

The Quest for the Perfect Drug

Barry Werth

Simon & Schuster · Print & ebook · March 1, 1995

Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research.

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Who it’s for
Drug discovery meets startup ambition in a close-up of science, competition, and finance.
Themes
Pharmaceutical drug development, Biotech business and finance, AIDS drug research
Pacing
Fast

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About this book

Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research. Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing—atom by atom—both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug, and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.

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You will be hooked from start to finish, as you go from the labs, where obsessive, fiercely competitive scientists struggle for a breakthrough, to Wall Street, where the wheeling and dealing takes on a life of its own, as Boger courts investors and finally decides to take Vertex public. Here is a fascinating no-holds-barred account of the business of science, which includes an updated epilogue about the most recent developments in the quest for a drug to cure AIDS.

Science Meets Finance

Drug discovery meets startup ambition in a close-up of science, competition, and finance.

Come here for

  • The uneasy partnership between lab work and Wall Street
  • A view into pharmaceutical research as both science and business

Expect

  • Competitive scientists and investor dealmaking
  • Drug research alongside the push to take a company public

Where it sits

Pharma & Biotech Industry93%
Biotech27%
HIV & AIDS24%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Business & Economics
  • Pharma & Biotech Industry
  • Molecular Modeling
Authors
Barry Werth
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Published
March 1, 1995
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Pharmaceutical drug development · Biotech business and finance · AIDS drug research
Reading lane
Business & Economics