Synopsis:
In Medicine, Science, and Merck, the authors trace the careers of a son of Greek immigrants as he mastered three professions and ultimately became the Chief Executive Officer of America's most admired corporation - the multinational, pharmaceutical giant, Merck and Co., Inc. As the authors show, there was hope even for a wise-cracking kid living through the hard times of the 1930s. Education brought out the scholar in Roy Vagelos, who left his family's small restaurant to attend the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia's Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. At NIH, he mastered biochemistry; at Washington University he became a distinguished science administrator; and at Merck, he headed the pharmaceutical industry's most innovative laboratory and then became its CEO. Throughout, he never lost touch with his family values, his intense desire to help others, or his faith in the partnership principle and the competition that makes it work.
Review:
"...this book is good business history...makes a strong case for institutional autonomy of the pharmaceutical industry against government price controls of drugs." J.P. Brickman, United States Merchant Marine Academy, Choice
"...a very important book...a seemless weave of many stories...tremendous nourishment." Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Columbia University
"A wonderful book about how one individual's values and vision have shaped one of America's most innovative companies. It is a tale that ranges from the fight against AIDS to the discovery of lifesaving heart medicines. Read this book, and you'll understand more about modern medicine, public health and how private sector science benefits mankind everyday." Former Senator Bill Bradley
"Roy Vagelos is a universally admired leader, and he has used his rare gifts of energy, creativity and idealism to profoundly affect our world. I encourage everyone to read the inside story of his central role in developing some of the most exciting, lifesaving innovations in modern medicine where he functioned in the combined role of scientist and model CEO." Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of Sciences
"If you want the real story on the pharmaceutical industry, Medicine, Science and Merck is the best place to start. Vagelos and Galambos tell us what it takes to be an innovator in an American industry that has long been the world's leading source of new drugs and vaccines." William C. Steere, Chairman of the Board Emeritus, Pfizer Inc.
"Like so much of America, Medicine, Science, and Merck is, on the one hand, an intriguing story about an extraordinary American and a great American company. On the other and more importantly, it is also an intersecting and overlapping set of narratives about immigrants in America, medicine as a profession and an industry, and public policy that somehow transcends the fascinating story of an extraordinary American. Indeed this book succeeds in telling us a good deal about both ourselves and the nature of an important set of public policy issues that continue to grasp the public imagination and remain unresolved." Harold T. Shapiro, President Emeritus and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
"This journey shines with optimism for all of us who have become demoralized by the failure of the ideals of science, medicine, and the corporate world and by the threat of defeat of our shared ethical vision. The book also gives heart to the reader to take a similar journey, assessing its enduring values, measuring its missed opportunities, admiring its texture." New England Journal
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