Blockbuster Drugs: The Rise and Decline of the Pharmaceutical Industry

The scope of this book is well covered in the publisher's review. As a retired physician I found the stories of how modern drugs are developed fascinating. Medicinal chemists seem to build and modify molecules as if they were made of Legos. The vast sums of money at stake in "big pharma" are staggering. The author estimates that the development of a successful new drug costs around $1.3 BILLION! This investment must be recovered before the patent runs out or a better drug is marketed by some rival. This window of opportunity can be only few years long. Hence the high price of newly marketed breakthrough drugs. This is the system that has evolved in our society for stimulating a constant stream of wonder drugs. There may not be a better one.Contrary to the publisher's reviews, this book is not free of jargon, especially chemical nomenclature. However, I rapidly learned to ignore that and concentrate on the themes of the book. The author does introduce and reuse a lot of acronyms, and I would have appreciated a glossary of these abbreviations.

This is a terrific book that I couldn't put down. I discovered Dr Li's writings via his earlier book from OUP, Laughing Gas, Viagra and Lipitor, which I liked so much that I use it as "No. 1 recommended reading" in a popular fresher's course on pharmaceutical innovation called "Drugs that Changed the World" that I teach with pharmacology and clinical colleagues at my university. If you also liked his earlier book I think you'll enjoy this one because Dr Li fills in some gaps in the original work. I personally learned oodles of fascinating snippets that will help spice up an otherwise dull pharmacology lecture. I could quibble over one or two minor omissions of pharmacological details, and I wish the text contained more molecular structures to show the "chemical evolution" of therapeutic classes so I didn't have to keep flipping to the appendix, but otherwise this book is really good. Dr Li is to be commended for seeking to reach a wider audience with the fascinating stories surrounding the scientific, political and intellectual energy required to bring new medicines to market.

I really enjoyed the book. I am fascinated by history and the background stories of medicine and the people who were involved. I hope e enjoy the book also.

Easy read and with some historical interest. Written more from a chemists perspective, but generally well explained.

USELESS