I appreciate all the information shared, but the editor could’ve improved the text much more.
I think the strongest chapter is Chapter 14 - Prescripticide and sadly, the weakest is Chapter 17 - A Call for Reform which felt too quickly put together.
I saw a number of repetitions from chapter to chapter which could’ve been better handled.
The author is Canadian and a former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), yet the book makes you feel like the US and Canada are one country. I would’ve preferred a discussion centered on Canada and how US systems affect the approval and sales of pharmaceutical.
Even though the Canadian discovery of insulin was discussed, there is no mention of the catastrophic closure of the lab where insulin was discovered and the sale of the company to foreign interests. This put Canada on the vulnerable path of needing to pay too much for vaccines it couldn’t produce, as we saw with the recent pandemic. Was it because it was due to the influence of a Conservative PM?
Because the author enjoys mentioning (twice) that a Liberal PM watered down a Bill brought forth by the author when he was an MP. Yet he seems devoted to his Conservative PM even though he didn’t support his original Private Members Bill to create an independent Canadian Drug Agency in 2009, or its different reiterations until 2015?
I didn’t like how politics tainted the important information this book contained and believe the Call for Reform chapter might’ve been weakened because of them.