The Blockbuster Drug

The Blockbuster Drug may be just the prescription for the reader looking for a smart, suspenseful novel set against the background of some of today’s cutting-edge medical and legal issues. Set largely inside a major health plan located in Cincinnati, this novel explores the dependent, but sometimes treacherous relationships among health plans, drug companies, physicians and patients. Spencer Doss, M.D., the health plan's new Regional Medical Director, stumbles onto what he believes are too many cases of a rare cancer in older patients taking the latest blockbuster drug. For help, he turns to Eileen Wang, the health plan’s in-house counsel. Wang has other issues on her plate – a cyber intrusion and an insider-trading investigation – but finds herself wondering why so many seniors are taking the expensive new drug. Maya Naidu, the programmer whose data mining unearthed the excess cases of the cancer in patients taking the drug, returns home to Hyderabad to be at her mother’s death bed. In Shanghai, the police are investigating a bribery scheme involving the drug’s manufacturer. Hired to represent one of the drug’s victims, hotshot young attorney Ryan Ponzer doesn’t have the resources to litigate with a giant drug company. Should he sue the health plan for failure to warn the health plan’s members of the blockbuster’s deadly side effects?