ISBN: 9781451655667    Publisher: Simon and Schuster Year of publishing: 2014     Format:  Hardback No of Pages: 448        Language: English

ic Joshua Boger left Merck, then America's most admired business, to found a drug company that would challenge industry giants and transform health care. Werth described the company's tumultuous early days during the AIDS crisis in The Billion-Dollar Molecule, a celebrated classic of science and business journalism. Now he returns to tell a riveting story of Vertex's bold endurance and eventual success.

The $325 billion-a-year pharmaceutical business is America's toughest and one of its most profitable. 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 captures the full scope of Vertex's twentyfive- year drive to deliver breakthrough medicines. At a time when America struggles to maintain its innovative edge, The Antidote is a powerful inside look at one of the most intriguing and important business stories of recent decades.
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Barry Werth is an award-winning journalist and the acclaimed author of five books. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and GQ, among others. He has taught at Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Boston University. His previous book on Vertex, The Billion-Dollar Molecule, was selected as one of Fortune's "75 Smartest Books We Know."
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