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

by Katherine Eban Narrated by Katherine Eban

Overview

From an award-winning Fortune reporter, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals the life-threatening dangers posed by globalization-The Jungle for pharmaceuticals

The widespread use of generic drugs has been hailed as one of the most important public health developments of the twentieth 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 pharmacists, our doctors, and our regulators that the generic and brand-name drugs are identical, generics just cheaper. But is this really true?

Katherine Eban's Bottle of Lies exposes the widespread deceit behind generic drug manufacturing-creating terrifying risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers, inspectors, and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential internal FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume adulterated medicine with unpredictable and even life-threatening effects. 

The story of generic drugs is truly global: it connects middle America to sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, and Brazil, and encompasses every market banking on the promise of a low-cost cure. Given that tens of millions of patients take drugs of dubious quality approved with fake data, the generics industry is the ultimate litmus test of globalization: what is the risk of moving drug manufacturing offshore, and is it worth the savings?     

  

An investigation with international sweep, exotic settings, molecular mayhem, 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.  

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book will save lives...What Rachel Carson did for our understanding of the perils facing the environment Katherine Eban has now done for our understanding of the threats to our health from the drugs we take every day. Bottle of Lies is Katherine Eban’s masterwork of global investigative reporting.” — James Risen, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Pay Any Price and State of War

“A shocking exposé of corporate greed, arrogance, and eagerness to exploit the weak for profit....Bottle of Lies is an important work of investigative journalism. Anyone who takes prescription drugs should read it.” — Eric Schlosser, author of Command and Control and Fast Food Nation

“Bottle of Lies is a tour de force of dogged reporting. In her bracing, panoramic account, Katherine Eban expertly unspools a colossal fraud with momentous implications for public health...This book is so alarming in places that it reads like a dystopian medical thriller. But it’s true.” — Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and The Snakehead

“Propulsive...astounding...disturbing” — NPR.org

“Gripping...Riveting and increasingly foreboding...Eban’s pacing, along with a structure that makes this astonishingly complex story easy to follow, gives the book a rough, unforced elegance...An invaluable exposé, a reportorial tour de force and a well-turned epic.” — New York Times

“An urgent, alarming work of health reporting that will make you question every drug in your medicine cabinet.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An extraordinary international corporate thriller...A compelling narrative...This book is good for your health."  — Hindustan Times

“A shocking and masterful work of global investigative reporting…. This is a book that should inform and alarm the many millions of Americans (and their doctors) who use generic drugs.”  — Overseas Press Club, in awarding Bottle of Lies the Cornelius Ryan Award for best non-fiction book on International Affairs

Eric Schlosser

A shocking exposé of corporate greed, arrogance, and eagerness to exploit the weak for profit....Bottle of Lies is an important work of investigative journalism. Anyone who takes prescription drugs should read it.

Patrick Radden Keefe

Bottle of Lies is a tour de force of dogged reporting. In her bracing, panoramic account, Katherine Eban expertly unspools a colossal fraud with momentous implications for public health...This book is so alarming in places that it reads like a dystopian medical thriller. But it’s true.

New York Times

Gripping...Riveting and increasingly foreboding...Eban’s pacing, along with a structure that makes this astonishingly complex story easy to follow, gives the book a rough, unforced elegance...An invaluable exposé, a reportorial tour de force and a well-turned epic.

Hindustan Times

"An extraordinary international corporate thriller...A compelling narrative...This book is good for your health." 

James Risen

This book will save lives...What Rachel Carson did for our understanding of the perils facing the environment Katherine Eban has now done for our understanding of the threats to our health from the drugs we take every day. Bottle of Lies is Katherine Eban’s masterwork of global investigative reporting.

NPR.org

Propulsive...astounding...disturbing

Overseas Press Club

A shocking and masterful work of global investigative reporting…. This is a book that should inform and alarm the many millions of Americans (and their doctors) who use generic drugs.” 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170097036
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,134,937

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