The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug,   ISBN:9780671510572

Customer Rating: 

I am a physician-scientist with over a decade of experience at the highest levels of U.S. biomedical science. The Billion Dollar Molecule is the only book that I am aware of that accurately portrays the intensly competitive, some would say brutal, reality of modern high-level science. The long work hours and frantic scramble for success are totally accurate. I wish Mr. Werth would write another book on science.

Customer Rating: 

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.

Customer Rating: 

"The Billion Dollar Molecule" is a great story on its own merits. The facts that the book (a) is based on real life, (b) offers important lessons about business and entrepreneurship and (c) provides a good overview of the pharmaceutical field are just additional incentives to read this excellent publication.

Filled with clear and well-drawn characters, spanning landscapes from the research laboratory to Wall Street, this is a book well worth reading.

Highly recommended.

Customer Rating: 

The book describes the journey of one small biotech startup complany toward the end of the age of biotech startup companies. Its a good book if you are thinking of starting a biotech, or just think the idea is cool. This book will teach you a little about what it takes to be successfull.

Customer Rating: 

I thought this book was a really interesting insight into what it takes to start a drug company. Being a grad student in biology, I'm definitely open to non-conventional academic options and I read this book because of that. Thrilling and well-written, Barry Werth gave an intimate account of the gruelling process of starting an independent drug company. The narrative got rather boring at times, but overall it's a worthwhile read.