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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Human Trials: Scientists, Investors, and Patients in the Quest for a Cureby Susan Quinn
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:A gripping investigation into the world of experimental drug trials and the scientists, venture capitalists, and patients whose careers and lives are on the line.
Over fifty million people suffer from some form of autoimmune disease — multiple sclerosis, arthritis, lupus, and other afflictions in which the body attacks itself — none of them with a lasting cure. Susan Quinn has investigated the worlds where new autoimmune drugs are being developed: the research labs, the drug-company boardrooms, and the clinics where patients become "subjects" in the search for new medicines and treatments. Her exciting story is one of real people: fiercely competing scientists, ambitious venture capitalists, and, above all, anxious, sick human beings. She takes the reader inside these otherwise closed worlds, into the lead investigator's diaries, the tense closed-door meetings with investors, and the hopeful or heart-rending encounters in doctor's offices. Hers is the archetypal story of all medical research: the roller-coaster trip from the lab bench to the medicine cabinet, in which only a very few new drugs and treatments survive. Susan Quinn, author of the acclaimed biography Marie Curie, catches the hopes, triumphs, and crushing failures, the greed and the idealism in these dramatic human trials. Book News Annotation:Quinn (a biographer) has written a case study of a lengthy trial led
by Howard Weiner, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, to invent a new drug for MS.
She has written this narrative for the non-specialist reader,
describing the deliberations with the drug company, the expectations
of the scientists, the hopes of the patients who took part in the
clinical trials, and the role of the venture capitalists who financed
the study. Her research was drawn from interviews, her observations
of events, tapes and video recordings, and Weiner's journals.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Review:"This book is to experimental drug trials what Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On was to the AIDS epidemic. In resonant journalistic prose, Quinn (A Mind of Her Own: The Life of Karen Horney; Marie Curie: A Life) manages to capture the day-by-day human drama of high-stakes drug testing on patients with multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, everyday people who gamble with their lives to find a cure....Quinn, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Atlantic Monthly, knows how to tell this story....There are plenty of make-or-break moments in this book, made all the more poignant by Quinn's considerable talents as a biographer, which lend depth of character to the doctors and patients who grace these pages." Publishers Weekly Review:"Quinn is especially good at describing relationships among investigators, patients, businesspeople, and financiers; she points out, among other things, the dangers of a physician getting too close to a drug company. Despite the failures it reports, this important study's attitude is that stated by [Harvard Medical School professor Howard] Weiner: 'The only failed experiment is the one you don't learn from.'" Booklist Review:"Quinn's absorbing book follows the formulation of the drugs from the basic biological theory to fund-raising efforts and, finally, the formulation and execution of the trials. The human aspects of the process are very evident as the reader is introduced to the researchers, investors, doctors, and, most importantly, patients involved in the trial." Library Journal About the AuthorSUSAN QUINN is the author of two highly praised biographies, A Mind of Her Own: The Life of Karen Horney and Marie Curie. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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