Magic Cancer Bullet: How a Tiny Orange Pill May Rewrite Medical History

by Daniel Vasella, Robert Slater

The remarkable story behind the revolutionary miracle cure for cancer, Gleevec. Novartis chairman Dr Dan Vasella describes its development and how he and Novartis orchestrated the break–neck approval and massive production of this amazing drug. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis recently developed Gleevec, one of the first 'smart' drugs created to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells in the process. In early tests with a common form of leukemia and other types of cancer, Gleevec has been extraordinarily successful, and side effects have been astoundingly minimal. Gleevec communicates directly with cancer–causing chromosomes and interrupts the signal that causes excessive growth of certain white blood cells. Patients have seen their tumours shrink significantly, and some have disappeared altogether. This is the inside story of the creation of this miracle drug, and how Novartis CEO and chairman Dan Vasella rallied the company to bring Gleevec to market in mass quantities and record time.

Genres: Medicine, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 2003

Reviews

[Hiroaki · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's not a good text for learning the science and pathology of CLL and imatinib, TKi.
The writing editor is no good. The purpose of this book might be lifting the retirement package. But the book gave me a chance to think about the drug pricing.

[Herman Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written, but a good story, nonetheless.

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[Andy Oram · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is both useful--as an insider’s description of how drug development works--and entertaining, as a story of a decidedly unusual case. Gleevec is still in use and seems to be an important part of the drug toolkit, despite the discovery of some side effects. In addition, its discovery does appear to be historic because it was an early example of compounds targeted at particular genetic processes. Dr. Vasella, of course, had personal and corporate reasons for telling this story: he wanted to demonstrate that the company is “people who care,” and he wanted to justify the patenting and pricing of pharma drugs. But he is very explicit about these goals and they don’t detract from the interesting history. I found the style quite readable, although some undefined terms sent me to the Internet and the chronology could have been ordered a bit better.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, published by the then Novartis CEO only two years after the FDA approval of Gleevec(R) for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), allows one to stand in the shoes of a big pharma CEO beginning with the discovery, and through to the development, testing, approval, release and sale of the world's first targeted anti-cancer drug, a protease inhibitor. A well indexed laymen's guide to the economics of drug discovery and development.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat to see the drug development from start to finish, even if it seemed that all of the discovery chemistry was done by one person. A bit preachy as well, and for all its defensive stance regarding pricing and wanting to help patients, came across as rather insincere and politician-like. Perhaps that's just how CEOs are?

[Gayle Love · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story, particularly because I was hoping to learn the history of Gleevec, but overall, not well written.