Description
Book SynopsisOne of
Scientific American's Best Staff Reads of 2023
A gripping business narrative and scientific thriller about what it takes to bring a wonder drug to market—and save countless lives.
Trade Review"A cinematic tour of ambition, greed and desperation in biotech." -- Mandana Chaffa - Scientific American
"[
For Blood and Money] is a fascinating look at the quest to develop a new drug for blood cancer that targets only cancerous cells and not the healthy kind." -- Economist
"A master class in the machinations of modern drug development." -- Adrian Woolfson - Science
"A crash course in biotech success — and failure….
For Blood and Money does an excellent job of highlighting the complexities and expense, both financial and personal, of drug development." -- Heidi Ledford - Nature
"[
For Blood and Money ] is much more than a tale of the birth of a potent new cancer drug, as it reveals the split personality of biotech: an altruistic enterprise that creates breakthrough treatments for patients in need, and a bare-knuckle business that seeks to generate astronomic profits and crush competitors." -- Jerome Groopman - New York Review of Books
"
For Blood and Money is a fascinating—and often disturbing—insider view of the genesis of a blockbuster drug, and the often-explosive clash of science, Wall Street cash, ego, and testosterone that are involved." -- Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity and Crisis of Conscience
"Nathan Vardi has crafted an intimate and gripping account of the rollercoaster journey a new drug takes from molecule to potential medicine.
For Blood and Money is a page-turner, chock full of character and intrigue. With classic journalistic shoe leather, Vardi delivers the inside story of biotech, bringing readers into the bare-knuckle backroom of biopharma start-ups where the stakes couldn’t be higher—especially for patients." -- Charles Graeber, New York Times best-selling author of The Good Nurse and The Breakthrough
"Nathan Vardi tells an exciting story of the relentless focus and extraordinary effort required to bring a breakthrough to patients, providing rich detail on the delicate interplay between researchers, biopharma, investors, and regulators that leads to medical innovation." -- Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
"A harrowing and improbable story of two rival blockbuster cancer drugs that takes us deep inside the coiling miasma of high-stakes modern medicine, where obsessive scientists, doctors, investors, middlemen, billionaires, and giant corporations alternate, collaborate, and clash to accomplish what none of them could possibly do on their own. Meticulously researched, vividly told, Nathan Vardi’s tale presents a detailed and compelling portrait." -- Barry Werth, author of The Billion Dollar Molecule and The Antidote
"
For Blood and Money is a blast. Nathan Vardi shows the roles that greed, fear, determination, and, above all, ambition play in developing billion-dollar drugs. A ton of fun and full of insight." -- Gregory Zuckerman, author of A Shot to Save the World
"A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Wall Street investment leads to the products on pharmacy shelves. Nathan Vardi brings a deep knowledge and economical storytelling to the clash between two billionaires behind two cancer drugs and shows real humanity in describing the scientists who were often caught in the middle." -- Matthew Herper, Senior Writer, STAT
"[A] fascinating story of... the financial arrangements, medical controversies, regulatory processes, and business rivalries without which the two competing drugs—Imbruvica and Calquence—would not have become publicly available…. An interesting tale of how personal ambition, scientific curiosity, and the pursuit of wealth led to life-extending drugs." -- Kirkus Reviews
