Strong Medicine — Arthur Hailey

Master storyteller Arthur Hailey's New York Timesâ€"bestselling novel takes readers behind the scenes of the billion-dollar pharmaceutical drug industry

It starts as a routine case: Mary Rowe contracts hepatitis from unclean drinking water, and the infection should work its way out of her system in a few days. But when the illness worsens and she slips into a coma, Dr. Andrew Jordan is forced to tell Rowe's husband that his wife is dying. It's 1957 and there simply isn't a drug that can save her. Pharmaceutical saleswoman Celia de Grey then offers Dr. Jordan a sample of an experimental drug that cures the dying woman overnight. This marks the beginning of an epic journey -- and a great romance -- for a dedicated internist and an idealistic, ambitious woman.
 
The miracle cure establishes de Grey as a rising star within the industry. But as the years pass, she and her husband, Dr. Jordan, begin to realize that her bosses are driven not by the desire to eradicate disease, but by greed. Millions can be made in matters of life and death -- for those who don't mind getting blood on their hands.