The biotechnology field has evolved over the past four decades, developing medicines that are curing diseases. But this journey of success has been challenging and arduous, built upon the shoulders of significant failures.
Good Genes Gone Bad highlights seven such colossal failures in drug development-all which culminated in the development of novel drugs-weaving together various analogies through the stories and thus allowing the reader to understand complex biological phenomena. These stories include treatment of medical conditions such as genetic clotting disorder (haemophilia), childhood diarrhoea (rotavirus vaccine), preventing HIV infection, activation of the immune systems to treat cancer, gene therapy for the treatment of diseases caused by gene defects/mutations, cell therapy for the treatment of leukaemias, and finally the success of Biocon's approval of the first biologic drug for breast cancer.
Written by the former R&D head of Biocon, India's largest pharmaceutical company, Good Genes Gone Bad is a fascinating look at the complex world of medicine and drug development, providing the readers with a sense of the magnitude of challenges and the extent of difficulty that it takes to make novel medicines.