The Billion Dollar Molecule

One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug

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 that includes an updated epilogue about the most recent developments in the quest for a drug to cure AIDS.

©1994 Barry Werth; Introduction copyright 2014 by Barry Werth (P)2021 Tantor

Book is interesting but narrator is not

Nothing against the author but it was really hard for me to stay engaged with the narrator. I would find myself spacing out consistently which would detract from the story because of the performance. Because of this I returned the book

Very Detailed

Gave varying perspectives and detailed background context throughout story. Did want a little more of a conclusion

Boring AF

Spoiler alert:






They didn't make the drug they set out to make. word word word