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

This is probably the only must read book, The Book on the challenges and thrills of starting either a new drug company, or a new drug development program or both activities together. The cast of characters besides real is monumental from the founder to the chief scientific advisor, including the advisory board and the scientists and clinicians who made individual discoveries and contributions along the way, including from competing companies. It's about Vertex in the late 1980s and 1990s but the same events happened then and happen today at other biotech and pharma companies, and similar driven and highly qualified personalities also lead other drug companies. However, this book captures the essence of all of that incarnated in past Vertex with magistral descriptions about the complexities of the personalities and their decision related to both data as well as insights from past experiences. Fun and thrilling to read, almost like a romance immortalizing characters such as Joshua Boger, Vertex founder. Kudos to him for letting Werth take a look into what goes on inside a pharmaceutical company, and kudos to Werth for capturing and describing it so brilliantly.

Barry Werth's book provides a view of the high business and personal risks involved in developing drugs. $ 100 million and much more are sought after to research and develop a drug that only has a promise and could easily do nothing or even worse cause harm. That's the business risk and the leaders have to put on a confident front and do whatever or say whatever to make sure the money keeps coming in. On the personal side many extremely bright and confident PhD/MDs battle it out to be the one that makes the discovery or get credit for it. Quite often this battle is in the same company between friends and colleagues who may not in the end remain as such. Much of it reminds you of high school but then again we probably never do leave that stage as much as we like to think.The constant use of molecule and target names and descriptions can make a difficult read but there is much more soap opera than science. One finishes the book wondering how we have come so far in medicine/pharmaceuticals but I guess the same competitive spirit that can so often get in the way of progress also can make it go further and its tough to know when its more trouble than benefit.

A fantastic book. Extremely well written. I took an unususual interest in this book as at one point in my career I was doing research on plasmids; mapping the circular pieces of DNA that confer resistance to antibiotics for bacteria. The character vignettes in Mr. Werth's book are extraordinarily well done. The author definitely DOES HIS HOMEWORK on this one. This is a fascinating investigation into the business and characters involved in a pharmaceutical startup; all the characters involved throughout the book are superstars in their respective fields - truly masters of the universe. Werth is Michael Lewis on steroids. Do yourself a favor and take an incredible adventure with The Billion Dollar Molecule.

If you are into science and biotechnology as I am, you will find this book to be a great way of entering that world. It describes the science simply and gets you excited about it, it shows you the business world beyond the labs and its complications. I loved the emotions that it spurred in me as I was reading it and thinking ahead on becoming a cog in the workings of science and technology.

Chronicling the rise of Vertex, one of the first companies to dabble in rational drug design, the Billion Dollar Molecule follows the brilliant Josh Boger as he attempts to become the next Merck. The scope of scientific context and the way in which the author weaves together various players is both witty and insightful. However I couldn't help feeling that the author's journalistic prowess obscured and glossed over the actual science that Vertex and its counterparts were performing. As somebody who was hoping for a sort of Elegant Universe meets the pharmaceutical industry structured within a compelling narrative, I was disappointed. The narrative (specifically the sequence of causality dating back from the 1900s to the 1980s) is brilliant, but the science, the real red meat of a book like this, is largely absent.

A lot of scenarios will repeat if you work or start a biotech company. Similar stresses and problems to experience, why not experience through the book first.

Excellent account of the rise of Vertex as a structure-based drug design company. I highly recommend to anyone interested in the inner workings of big and small Pharma.

Barry Werth has revealed it all for the public - the inside story of the making of Vertex, a fledgling pharmaceutical start-up (which has now achieved much-deserved success and glory). Werth goes to the extent of discussing each individual's feelings and thoughts (anguish) in candid detail. The story is an adrenaline rush; expect to reach for a few extra cups of coffee while reading this book. The main players are from Harvard, Yale, Merck, the best of the best and all workaholics to the extreme. As the story - the rush to the finish-line - unfolds, you realize that Dr. Joshua Boger, is truly a brilliant, gifted man - both a scholarly researcher and a precocious businessman with a fantastic presence of mind. What's even more breath-taking is that the entire story is true - the toil, the sweat, the despair, the triumph. I enjoyed every minute while reading this book. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who has a degree in the biomedical sciences.

This is a terrific book that accurately, vividly and appealingly details what goes on in drug development teams and biotech/pharma companies in general. This by providing a specific example at pharma company Vertex, sort of an unofficial spin off of Merck. The cast of characters is made into bigger than life folks, with plenty of details about their personalities and intricacies. Is almost like watching a movie kind of reading. This because the book focuses on the people as they go about competing, buying, designing, inventing, proposing, modifying and testing in both animals and humans novel drugs for unmet needs. At times is a bit sycophant or at the very least very optimistic about the leaders of vertex, telling us how great they are, how persevering under any challenge, how visionary, and even how fantastic their parents and even grandparents were and so forth. However, even that contributes to a fun reading, albeit not entirely realistic.

There is no conclusion to the story of Vertex's structure based drug design. The writing style is ambling and repetitive as if the author is just trying to stuff more pages in the book to justify it's price. I won't recommend this purchase you don't get to learn anything of the actual successes of the company. Useless book

5 Stars

This is the book every business oriented person and MBA MUST READ. It covers subjects such fundamental as Innovation, Leadership, Finance, Mkt, Dealmaking, Geodesign, to name some. Excellent writing style. Not a chapter in slow motion. Already bought The Antidote.

Je n'aime pas le style de l'auteur, que je trouve assez lourd. Sa tentative de mêler histoires personnelles des scientifiques impliqués et histoire de la société est mal executée, ce qui rend la lecture assez lourde. Par contre aussi informé que complet sur les premiers jours de Vertex, autant que je puisse en juger.