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Bottle of Lies

The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom

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Bottle of Lies

Written by: Katherine Eban
Narrated by: Katherine Eban
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About this listen

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 20th 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 whistle-blowers, 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.

©2019 Katherine Eban (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Business & Careers Medicine & Health Care Industry Science

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Brilliant

This is incredibly well researched, written, and read. It should be made into a movie.

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incisive

in depth reporting of the greatest fraud related to human health, but biased towards USFDA being the only strictest regulator in the world

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Very interesting!!

Very well written on the underlying bad pharmacy practices done by few which impacts the majority of the world.

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if you are ever planning to take any medicine

An absolutely brilliant account of the fraud being conducted by the generic drug industry. It pains me personally more since I am an Indian, a doctor and also someone who at one time used to vouch for generic drugs. If you sometimes feel, why the medicines you take don't work... Or cause you more harm.... Read this book.👍👍

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Very Good Research Work

It's very good piece of work but seems to be highly biased against Generic players in general. USFDA is shown as slow and bureaucratic organisation and all Asian and specifically Indian companies are being shown in bad light. All things equal author should appreciate the fact that getting lower quality is much more important than not getting any medicine (on account of high costs of branded players specially in case of African countries).

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Nice book

Nice book with good explanation of facts. .. it reveals the dark site of pharmaceutical industries, special generic medicines.

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Very well written and narrated

Katherine's pronunciation of Indian names and places is quite off but its a minor wrinkle in what is an amazing book. After completing this book, when taking any pills, I've invariably started checking where it was manufactured and by whom.

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Shocking and definitely should be read

Bottle of Lies, a book about the quality problems plaguing generic drugs. In May 2013, Ranbaxy Laboratories admitted in an American court to selling adulterated drugs. It begins with Dinesh Thakur, the whistle-blower who exposed Ranbaxy’s misdeeds. In 2003, Thakur left his job at Bristol Myers Squibb’s New Jersey office to join the Gurgaon office of Ranbaxy — then a rising star of the Indian generics industry. There, he encountered a shocking web of chicanery. Wockhardt’s manufacturing plants too are now blocked from exporting drugs to the U.S.
China and Ghana is no better as far as quality control is concerned.

Quite shocking and worth a read.

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Indeed a Revelation

The contents of this book - the audio version - was an eye opener to the world of medicines. The entire journey of listening to this book was riveting. Well crafted story board spiced with the cruel and callous underbelly of the pharma industry. Well done.

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dramatic

there is a lot more drama than substance. feel like fiction writing. it's off putting due to that drama.

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