The Billion-Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug [Kindle Edition] Author: Barry Werth | Language: English | ISBN:
B00AK78PTG | Format: PDF, EPUB
The Billion-Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug Epub Free
Direct download links available The Billion-Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug Epub Free from with Mediafire Link Download Link Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research. Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing -- atom by atom -- both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug, and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
You will be hooked from start to finish, as you go from the labs, where obsessive, fiercely competitive scientists struggle for a breakthrough, to Wall Street, where the wheeling and dealing takes on a life of its own, as Boger courts investors and finally decides to take Vertex public. Here is a fascinating no-holds-barred account of the business of science, which includes an updated epilogue about the most recent developments in the quest for a drug to cure AIDS. Books with free ebook downloads available The Billion-Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug [Kindle Edition] Epub Free
- File Size: 2077 KB
- Print Length: 481 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0671510576
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (August 20, 2013)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00AK78PTG
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
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- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,899 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biotechnology
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in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Pharmacology > Pharmacy - #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Biological Sciences > Biotechnology - #6
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biotechnology
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.
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