Purchase
How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children
Regan Books
September 2006
On Sale: August 29, 2006
352 pages
ISBN: 0060734396
EAN: 9780060734398
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
The remarkable true story of one father's race against time
to found a business that would cure his sick children. John and Aileen Crowley were on top of the world. With a
brand-new Harvard Business School degree, three beautiful
children, a new house, and a great job, they thought that
they had just entered the best years of life. Then doctors
diagnosed their two youngest children with Pompe disease,
and everything changed. Fifteen-month-old Megan and five-month-old Patrick were
given only months to live. Pompe disease, the Crowleys were
told, was so rare that no company had bothered spending the
money needed to sponsor research. There was no cure, no
treatment—only the gradual degeneration of muscle so that at
the end, the children would be unable to walk, eat, or even
breathe on their own. It was a nightmare the Crowleys could
hardly comprehend. But John Crowley refused to accept this death sentence—and
in the absence of other options, he made his own. Determined
to find scientists who could develop a replacement enzyme
that would keep the disease at bay and his children alive,
Crowley quit his job as a financial consultant and invested
himself and his life savings in a biotechnology start-up
company. In just over a year, Novazyme Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., went from an endowment of $37,000 to $27 million, and
was sold to Genzyme Corp. soon thereafter for a
news-breaking $137.5 million. But the struggle wasn't over
yet, and scientific setbacks, accusations of conflict of
interest, business troubles, and the children's own
worsening condition would test the limits of John and
Aileen's minds and hearts as they fought towards a cure. With deft prose and devastating clarity, Pulitzer
Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Geeta Anand
weaves together the disparate threads of this remarkable
story of cutting-edge science; of business acumen and
daring; and of the indomitable fighting spirit of a family
that refuses to give in. Heart-wrenching yet triumphant, The Cure takes readers from
the boardrooms and laboratories to hospital beds and
kindergarten classrooms. With its captivating and ultimately
deeply uplifting narrative, The Cure is a wholly American
story of commerce and technology, of determination and
daring, and of family and the power of a belief in happy
endings.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy