“For Blood and Money” charts a race to develop a blockbuster drug
Nathan Vardi’s book brings to life a contest between two pharmaceutical firms
Few scientific endeavours are more lucrative than developing a blockbuster drug—or a blockbuster vaccine. Lipitor, Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering medication, is reputed to have made the company more than $160bn. Advair, an asthma drug, has earned tens of billions of dollars for GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline). And BioNTech, a firm few people had heard of before the covid-19 pandemic, has made billions from its mRNA vaccine.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Health is wealth”
Culture January 14th 2023
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