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Loading... Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom (edition 2019)by Katherine Eban (Author)
Work InformationBottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book is fairly limited in its scope, but it points out important issues that affect pretty much everyone because pretty much everyone, at one time or another, uses prescription medication. The main focus here is on a company in India and the government regulation of that company, but the issues raised go well beyond the "star attraction" of this book. There are "bad" people and bad companies and bad regulators and bad oversight of those regulators...and bad understanding by the average prescription drug buyer of how bad everything is. Many of us badly need to read this. no reviews | add a review
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"Many have hailed the widespread use of generic drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market is comprised of generics, the majority of which are manufactured overseas. We have been reassured by our doctors, our pharmacists and our regulators that generic drugs are identical to their brand-name counterparts, just less expensive. But is this really true? Katherine Eban's Bottle of Lies exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing--and the attendant risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies routinely falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit, confident in their ability to fool inspectors. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume medicine with unpredictable and dangerous effects. The story of generic drugs is truly global. It connects middle America to China, India, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil, and represents the ultimate litmus test of globalization: what are the risks of moving drug manufacturing offshore, and are they worth the savings?" -- Dust jacket. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)615.1Technology Medicine and health Pharmacology and therapeutics Materia medica; Drugs; PharmacologyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Bottle of Lies is the story of the generic drug boom of the early 2000s, specifically that caused by the increasing availability of cheap generic drugs from India and China. It follows the history of one specific Indian drug company, Ranbaxy, and the attempts by a whistleblower, certain contingents of the FDA, and FDA inspectors to bring attention to its widespread issues. In doing so, it exposes the consequences of globalization on the generic pharmaceutical industry as a whole.
This book was genuinely frightening. Eban's writing style is very engaging; it doesn't read like nonfiction. In fact, I spent most of the book wishing it was as I looked suspiciously at the pill bottle full of generic medication next to me. I would say it is one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I've ever read. ( )