While there are many books claiming to revolutionise the reader’s perspective on the addressed subject, there are a few that succeed in doing so. Bottle of Lies, an explosive piece of investigative journalism by Katherine Eban, truly lived up to its promises. The book details the murky depths of the generic drug industry.
It comes from a 5-year investigation of the Indian pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories, which was acquitted in a civil case that had the company shelling out more than 340 million USD as a penalty. The main storyline in the book is that of Dinesh Thakur, a former Ranbaxy executive who resigned on discovering the sinister secret of the company. Conflicted between his ethics and his safety, he let his morals prevail and exposed the entire system to the FDA.
Eban pulls off a herculean feat in detailing exactly how the heroes of the battle against Big Pharma were exposed, with reconstructed conversations, boardroom insights and whistleblower accounts painting an infuriating picture. The generic industry provides cheaper drugs by reverse engineering patented medical technologies and replicating them, a process that is undertaken mainly under self-regulation.
Most drug companies outside the United States escape the infamously rigorous FDA inspections because local regulations and visa permissions significantly limit them. This limitation has arguably led to the generic drug industry being corrupted.
Whistleblowers and former executives recounted the horror stories that went on behind the scenes, with shocking revelations of executives admitting that 100% of the data in the dossiers submitted to the authorities was forged. The book helps to understand the full magnitude of submitting false data points, the least damaging of the effects being that the drugs may be ineffective. Manufacturing safe drugs for such large markets is a big responsibility that generic companies worldwide disregard.
One of the most alarming discoveries was not that the drugs were produced by neglecting safety standards but that potentially life-threatening drugs for patients were knowingly approved and supplied. Earlier in the book, it is mentioned how Ranbaxy provided supposedly life-saving AIDS drugs that were ineffective, leading to millions of lives being risked, only for an executive to waive it off as ‘just blacks dying’.
It is one thing to sell effective and safe drugs at exorbitant prices for profit, but a complete other to sell contaminated and soiled drugs to patients fighting for their lives. Bottle of Lies delivers a systematic and comprehensive account of the industry’s perspectives, from executives willing to risk thousands of lives for a quick buck to even FDA investigators that jump into dumpsters to find incriminating evidence.
This book is essential for just about anyone, and I guarantee that it will open your eyes to the disconcerting reality of what goes inside your medicine bottles.