About the Author

Nathan Vardi is a managing editor at MarketWatch and former senior editor at Forbes. He writes about big money investors, hedge funds, private equity firms, and the intersection of Wall Street and biopharma. He lives in Edgemont, New York.

Reviews

"A cinematic tour of ambition, greed and desperation in biotech."
*Mandana Chaffa - Scientific American*

"A crash course in biotech success—and failure…For Blood and Money does an excellent job of highlighting the complexities and expense, both financial and personal, of drug development."
*Heidi Ledford - Nature*

"[For Blood and Money] is a fascinating look at the quest to develop a new drug for blood cancer that targets only cancerous cells and not the healthy kind."
*Economist*

"For Blood and Money is a blast. Nathan Vardi shows the roles that greed, fear, determination, and, above all, ambition play in developing billion-dollar drugs."
*Gregory Zuckerman, author of A Shot to Save the World*

"Gripping…[A] page-turner, chock full of character and intrigue."
*Charles Graeber, New York Times best-selling author of The Good Nurse*

"An exciting story of the relentless focus and extraordinary effort required to bring a breakthrough to patients."
*Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer*

"For Blood and Money is a fascinating—and often disturbing—insider view of the genesis of a blockbuster drug, and the often-explosive clash of science, Wall Street cash, ego, and testosterone that are involved."
*Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity and Crisis of Conscience*

"A harrowing and improbable story of two rival blockbuster cancer drugs that takes us deep inside the coiling miasma of high-stakes modern medicine, where obsessive scientists, doctors, investors, middlemen, billionaires, and giant corporations alternate, collaborate, and clash to accomplish what none of them could possibly do on their own. Meticulously researched, vividly told, Nathan Vardi’s tale presents a detailed and compelling portrait."
*Barry Werth, author of The Billion Dollar Molecule and The Antidote*

"A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Wall Street investment leads to the products on pharmacy shelves. Nathan Vardi brings a deep knowledge and economical storytelling to the clash between two billionaires behind two cancer drugs and shows real humanity in describing the scientists who were often caught in the middle."
*Matthew Herper, senior writer, Stat*

"[A] fascinating story of... the financial arrangements, medical controversies, regulatory processes, and business rivalries without which the two competing drugs—Imbruvica and Calquence—would not have become publicly available…. An interesting tale of how personal ambition, scientific curiosity, and the pursuit of wealth led to life-extending drugs."
*Kirkus Reviews*