Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug [Hardcover]

Barry Werth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1994

An inside account of the start-up of a biotechnology company describes its struggle to bring a lifesaving drug to market, discussing the risky financing and profiling the venture capitalists involved. 30,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From test tubes to the Wall Street IPO and beyond, this is the riveting true story of a start-up pharmaceutical company working to create an anti-AIDS drug. Scientifically accurate, yet written with an attention to plot, timing, dialogue, and development of character more characteristic of the best thrillers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Freelance writer Werth has taken two complex industries--biotechnology and high finance--and woven them into an intriguing story. The subject of his book is Vertex, a start-up firm headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., that set out to be among the first companies to successfully create and improve drugs through structure-based design, a goal that if attained could mean millions, if not billions, of dollars in revenues. Werth's wide access to Vertex and its executives is evident in his detailed account of what he describes as the "blood sport" of big-time science. Vertex is guided through the scientific and financial jungles by Joshua Boger, the founder of the company who is also very much the driving force of Werth's narrative. A compelling side-plot is Boger's relationship with Stuart Schreiber, a Harvard chemistry professor who turned from a colleague into a competitor. While the scientific jargon sometimes slows the pace of the work, most readers will stay the course to learn if Boger achieves his goals of raising funds (he does), discovering an important design-based drug and making a lot of money (coming close on both).
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (February 16, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671723278
• ISBN-13: 978-0671723279
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars difficult, fascinating, and compelling birth of a company, October 9, 2004

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug (Paperback)

This is the story of the first few years of Vertex, a bioventure that sought to create drugs that were constructed molecule by molecule - it is supposed to be "rational drug design". In exchange for allowing the company to check his work for accuracy and proprietary disclosures, Werth was admitted into the inner circle of the company, with both executives and scientists, for four years.

Werth offers masterful descriptions of both the science and the intricacies of the busisess deals. The work is similar to that of Tracy Kidder in "The Soul of a New Machine" and, in my opinion, of the same quality.

At the center of the story is Vertex's founding visionary, Joshua Boger, formerly a researcher at Merck. He reasoned that instead of screening soil samples and insect secretions in a hot or miss approach in thousands of petri dishes, he could design drugs atom by atom to bind to - and thus inactivate - molecules instrumental to the disease process. In theory, these drugs would be without side effects: because of the precision of the design, they would adhere to their target alone, allowing beneficial enzymes of other chem reactions to go on unimpeded.

Boger's first target molecule was FKBP, which he believed was a crucial agent of the immune system. By blocking it, he hoped to prevent the host's body from rejecting transplanted organs. While Boger was out raising money (eventually reaching $60 million), Vertex's researchers hunkered down to isolate and analyze FKBP, whose molecular mechanic remained poorly understood.

Unfortunately, what happened is a great example of the difficulties in marrying business to cutting-edge science: after over two years of pushing themselves to the brink of nervous collapse, Vertex scientists found difficulties with FKBP. Even worse, Boger's arch rival, a prof at Harvard, discovered why. The prof beat VErtex, Werth argues, because he remained outside the venture capital game and could thus concentrate totally on the science and could openly collaborate with them rather than hide proprietary results.

Nonetheless, driven and confident as ever, Boger turned his scientific team onto the new problem. Thru all of this, Boger comes off as a fascinating character: the son of a suicide, he is unshakably convinced that he can bend nature as well as the business world to his will. The reader sees what lies behind the herculean efforts of him and his team.

Warmly recommended as a rivetting tale of human endeavor that embraces the true complexity.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced and Insightful, March 24, 1998

By 

EarlRandy "earlrandy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug (Paperback)

I first read this book nearly two years ago as research for a novel I was writing. Recently, I turned to it once more to pick up a few terms and found myself reading chapter after chapter!

This non-fiction tale has enough twists and turns and drama to match any thriller on the market. An informative and engaging tale of a pharmaceutical start-up and the people involved. Joshua is interesting enough that the book could have been solely about him, but he isn't the only one. All of the players in this ego-driven mega-drama are interesting on many levels.

Who would I reccomend this book to? Anyone who likes a well-told story. A background in medicine is not needed, and neither is a knowledge of business practices. All you need to enjoy this book is a brain . . . and a night light because you'll be reading this book deep into the night.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, vivid insights into biotech hustle, January 6, 1999

By 

Doubting Thomas (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug (Paperback)

A well-told, vivid story about real life drug development, executed with a sharp observer's eye and an even hand. Hardly a gushing account of medical miracles in the making, but by no means industry bashing either. Rather, an inside look at real people in a fascinating world. This book never quite got the critical acclaim that it deserved.