Book description
In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph. D. student, worked
on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab,
searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and
at home. On his eleventh experiment on a common bacterium found in
farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure
for tuberculosis, at that time the world's leading killer disease.
As director of Schatz's research, Waksman took credit for the discovery,
belittled Schatz's work, and secretly enriched himself with royalties
from the streptomycin patent filed by Merck, the pharmaceutical company.
In an unprecedented lawsuit, young Schatz sued Waksman, was awarded the
title of "co-discoverer" and a share of the royalties. But two
years later, Professor Waksman alone was awarded the Nobel Prize. Schatz
disappeared into academic obscurity.
For the first time, acclaimed author and journalist Peter Pringle
reveals the scandals behind one of the most important discoveries in the
history of medicine. The story unfolds on a tiny college campus in New
Jersey, but its repercussions spread worldwide. The streptomycin patent
was a breakthrough for the drug companies, overturning patent limits on
products of nature and paving the way for today's biotech world. As
dozens more antibiotics were found, many from the same family as
streptomycin, the drug companies created oligopolies and reaped big
profits. Pringle uses first-hand accounts and archives in the U. S. and
Europe to unravel the intensely human story behind the discovery that
started a revolution in the treatment of infectious diseases and shaped
the future of Big Pharma In Food, Inc.
, the veteran reporter Peter Pringle offers a refreshingly measured look
at this brave new world of 'gene guns', Flavr Savr tomatoes,
contaminated taco shells...
Peter Pringle is a veteran British foreign correspondent and
the author of several nonfiction books, including New York
Times Notable, Food, Inc., and the best-selling Those
Are Real Bullets, Aren t They? He has written for the New
York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in New York City.
