In the follow-up to *KIDNAP.org*, Robin and her gang take on an unscrupulous pharmaceuticals manufacturer, Neil Preston, who lives on a fortress-like estate and is a big fan of Josef Stalin. As their plan for making Preston change his dishonest ways develops, Robin runs into an old lover. Seeing Darin again makes her question her future. Should she leave crime-fighting behind and try to return to normal life? As the gang members work out their roles in the Preston Caper, Em also questions her future. Is she too old for this? Though both women are tempted to look back, they can't stay in the past. Danger is in the present, and they'll need to remain sharp if they're going to succeed with PHARMA CON. Still, crooks like Preston, who take advantage of the sick and elderly, need to be taught a lesson. Preston has all the protection money can buy, but our gang of "super-freaks" intends to take him on. It will be funny. It will be suspenseful. It will be a great ride for readers.
It is 1950s America and madness is in the air. In a world where the 'cures' for craziness include coma therapy, cyanide treatment and full-frontal lobotomies, Dr. William T. Friedrich, a young and ambitious psychology professor at Yale, stumbles upon a tropical plant that seems to possess the secret ingredient of happiness. In Casper Gedsic, a fiercely intelligent, socially inept, near-suicidal maths student, he seems to have found the perfect guinea pig. But when his experiments goes awry, Casper's thirst for revenge turns murderous and his actions have consequences that will haunt Friedrich and his family forever...
Award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Gerald Posner reveals the heroes and villains of the trillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry and delivers “a withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients (The New York Times Book Review). Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as antibiotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs, safety recalls affecting tens of millions of Americans, and soaring rates of addiction and overdose on prescription opioids have caused many to lose faith in drug companies. Now, Americans are demanding a national reckoning with a monolithic industry. “Gerald’s dogged reporting, sets Pharma apart from all books on this subject” (The Washington Standard) as we are introduced to brilliant scientists, incorruptible government regulators, and brave whistleblowers facing off against company executives often blinded by greed. A business that profits from treating ills can create far deadlier problems than it cures. Addictive products are part of the industry’s DNA, from the days when corner drugstores sold morphine, heroin, and cocaine, to the past two decades of dangerously overprescribed opioids. Pharma also uncovers the real story of the Sacklers, the family that became one of America’s wealthiest from the success of OxyContin, their blockbuster narcotic painkiller at the center of the opioid crisis. Relying on thousands of pages of government and corporate archives, dozens of hours of interviews with insiders, and previously classified FBI files, Posner exposes the secrets of the Sacklers’ rise to power—revelations that have long been buried under a byzantine web of interlocking companies with ever-changing names and hidden owners. The unexpected twists and turns of the Sackler family saga are told against the startling chronicle of a powerful industry that sits at the intersection of public health and profits. “Explosively, even addictively, readable” (Booklist, starred review), Pharma reveals how and why American drug companies have put earnings ahead of patients.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing. "A real-life version of the HBO series Succession with a lethal sting in its tail…a masterful work of narrative reportage.” – Laura Miller, Slate The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama—baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful. The Sackler name has adorned the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, but the source of the family fortune was vague—until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. Empire of Pain is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. It follows the family’s early success with Valium to the much more potent OxyContin, marketed with a ruthless technique of co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug’s addictiveness. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Empire of Pain is a ferociously compelling portrait of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super-elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed that built one of the world’s great fortunes.
Winner of the IPPY Award gold medal for Most Progressive Health Book On December 2, 2004, Gwen Olsen’s niece Megan committed suicide by setting herself on fire—and ended her tortured life as a victim of the adverse effects of prescription drugs. Olsen’s poignant autobiographical journey through the darkness of mental illness and the catastrophic consequences that lurk in medicine cabinets around the country offers an honest glimpse into alarming statistics and a health care system ranked last among nineteen industrialized nations worldwide. As a former sales representative in the pharmaceutical industry for several years, Olsen learned firsthand how an unprecedented number of lethal drugs are unleashed in the United States market, but her most heartrending education into the dangers of antidepressants would come as a victim and ultimately, as a survivor. Rigorously researched and documented, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher is a moving human drama that shares one woman’s unforgettable journey of faith, forgiveness, and healing.
The global center of gravity in life sciences innovation is rapidly shifting to emerging economies. In The New Players in Life Science Innovation, Tomasz Mroczkowski explains how China and other new economic powers are rapidly gaining leadership positions, and thoroughly assesses the implications. Mroczkowski discusses the sophisticated innovation strategies and reforms these nations have implemented: approaches that don't rely on market forces alone, and are achieving remarkable success. Next, he previews the emerging global "bio-economy," in which life science discoveries will be applied pervasively in markets ranging from health to fuels. As R&D in the West becomes increasingly costly, Mroczkowski introduces new options for partnering with new players in the field. He thoroughly covers the globalization of clinical trials, showing how it offers opportunities that go far beyond cost reduction, and assessing the unique challenges it presents. Offering examples from China to Dubai to India, he carefully assesses the business models driving today's newest centers of innovation. Readers will find up-to-date coverage of bioparks, technology zones, and emerging clusters, and realistic assessments of global R&D collaboration strategies such as those of Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, and IBM. With innovation-driven industries increasingly dominating the global economy, this book's insights are indispensable for every R&D decision-maker and investor.
