Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom

By Katherine Eban

Book Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * New York Times Notable Book * Best Book of the Year: New York Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Science Friday

With a new postscript by the author

From an award-winning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and life-threatening dangers on a global scale--The Jungle for pharmaceuticals

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?

A decade-long investigation with international sweep, high-stakes brinkmanship and big money at its core, Bottle of Lies reveals how the world's greatest public-health innovation has become one of its most astonishing swindles.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062338781
• ISBN13: 9780062338785
• Release Date: May 2019
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

It's A Must-Read

This is the most important book I've read in years, and I can honestly say that it has permanently changed the way I buy drugs. Think that brand name drug is expensive? Maybe - probably, actually - it's just an example of the axiom "you get what you pay for". This is a very compelling, very credible, very well researched, and mostly well written "deep dive" into the world of foreign made generic drugs and the FDA's failure to ensure their efficacy and safety. There are heroes and villains within both the Indian pharma companies and the FDA, but the heroes are swimming against the tides of profit, politics, and bureaucracy. I find that this book fits perfectly with my own experience working for multinational Fortune 500 companies in general, and specifically on Indian culture and Americans' failure to understand the differences vs. our own. Every bit of this story fits perfectly into a John Stossel world-view. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book not only as a compelling story, but for its possibly life-saving impact on your health and that of people you care about.