Customer Reviews

The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug

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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.

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.

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.

I read this book a couple of years ago and enjoyed it very much. Over time I have forgetten about it. But lately I've been doing research into new business creation and remembered this well written book. Many of the dry lessons of academic research are presented in a case study that reads like fiction.

A thouroughly enjoyable read, Werth sheds light on the personaliteis and complexities of an amazing and multifaceted business. Throughout, the author uncovers the unseen deal-making, hand-wringing, and fist clenching that dominate the start of Vertex, a strucure-based paharmaceutical firm.

I particularly enjoyed the background on the Boger-Schreiber collaboration and rivalry, and the ensuing rivalry in Vertex's own labs. Further, following the last few years of Vertex's ups and downs via the Internet has been thoroughly enjoyable.

Werth's style is easliy read, and his obvious unhindered access to Vertex and its people make the story enjoyable, suspenseful, and dramatic.

I read this book years ago, yet recall most of its details. It tells the tale of Josh Boger who came out of Harvard to start Vertex Pharmaceuticals, taking you in a captivating fashion through every delicate step from inception to maturity of this company in its quest for the big drug score.

Having spent almost 18 years in this industry as a scientist and entrepreneur myself I can testify to its accurate portrayl of what it is like to start a typical therapeutic biotech. This book provides unique incite into the world of start-up biotechs and the risks that come with them. It even manages to scuttle through the many interesting dynamics of biotech personalities where primadonna scientific wiz kids meet bottom line suits with calculators and some hybridize into a combination of the two.

If you are a potential investor, wish to work in this industry, or already do or even a patient wondering why your treatment/cure is not yet on market and want to understand more about the economics of biotechnology and drug discovery and development from the ground up, this is a must read. It will edify you and entertain you at the same time and you will end up rooting for Josh along the way.

Barry's Werth spent several years with the scientists and bio-venturers who formed Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The work paid off in an insightful and entertaining book. The Billion Dollar molecule is the holy grail of the researchers in today's pharmaceutical world, and this book shows how they go about attaining it. A remarkably easy book to read even if you don't know a protein from a Springsteen. The reader can find something valuable from all angles. Read it as a science book, a thriller, a business narrative, or a straight novel, you'll find delight here.

If you are even remotely curious about biotech and the hype around the industry, read this book! It's the inside scoop from people to lab work to venture capitalists.

I felt as if I was living the start-up experience too. I couldn't even stand the tension as I read the book, so I put it down to check the Internet to find out whether the company made it or not.

Working in a small start up biotech company, I found many parallels with the "Vertex Story" and the company I work for. I was able to identify with the pressure of finding a lead drug candidate (though not quite as intense as those Vertex scientists who went to Hell and back), the rallying of all the employees to do the best thing for the company, and hoping that upper management can keep raising the cash to keep us going. I might add that raising money now has become even more challenging with the advent of the Internet and the dot com companies that have taken a huge chunk of the available investment dollars. The story that unfolds in this book is a very good depiction of how difficult it is to find a drug candidate let alone one that will make it all the way through the FDA-required clinical trials. The clinical trials, although outside the scope for this book, are a significant part of getting a drug to the market and present their own set of challenges. A good book to get a pretty good feel of this is HER-2 by Robert Bazell about the road Genentech's Herceptin took before finally receiving FDA approval to treat breast cancer.

I am a physician-scientist with over a decade of experience at the highest levels of U.S. biomedical science. The Billion Dollar Molecule is the only book that I am aware of that accurately portrays the intensly competitive, some would say brutal, reality of modern high-level science. The long work hours and frantic scramble for success are totally accurate. I wish Mr. Werth would write another book on science.