‘A must read.’ Siddhartha Mukherjee, bestselling author of  The Emperor of All Maladies

What does it take to create a new medicine? The trajectory from laboratory to your neighbourhood pharmacy rarely runs smooth. Drug hunting demands radical leaps of imagination, the expertise of many? and a hefty dollop of luck. Unsurprisingly, ‘eureka’ moments come few and far between – but, when they do, they change lives.

Charting the discovery of eight revolutionary drugs, Dr William Pao cuts to the innovative heart of biomedical research and celebrates the tireless work of the scientists, doctors, patients and families fighting for better medical care. For each of these medicines, whether a potentially life-saving new treatment for cancer, or something as commonplace as paracetamol, there stands a cast of characters and a wealth of stories. Documenting these fascinating journeys, Breakthrough grants a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the medicines that improve – and very often save – our lives.

Foreword by Nobel Prize-Winner Harold Varmus

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‘Utterly compelling.’ Dame Kate Bingham, author of  The Long Shot

‘A celebration of medical innovation.’ Guardian

‘Captivating… An essential read.’  Art Levinson, former CEO of Genentech

We often hear about the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry – from extortionate pricing to the opioid epidemic. But there’s another story to be told.

Through the story of eight revolutionary treatments, Dr William Pao cuts to the innovative heart of medical science and celebrates the tireless work of those fighting for better care. Behind each of these medicines – whether a potentially life-saving new treatment for cancer, or something as commonplace as paracetamol – there stands a cast of characters and a wealth of stories.

The trajectory from the laboratory to the local chemist is rarely a straight line. Eureka moments are few are far between. Drug hunting demands leaps of imagination and lateral thinking, the accumulation of the knowledge and expertise of many, and – nearly always – a hefty dollop of luck.

Breakthrough documents these journeys and grants a privileged look at the stories behind the medicines that improve – and very often save – our lives.

Many animals and plants eke out  seemingly unremarkable lives. Passive,  constrained, modest, threatened. Then, in  a blink of evolutionary time, they flourish  spectacularly. Once we start to look, these  ‘sleeping beauties’ crop up everywhere.  But why?

Looking at the book of life, from apex  predators to keystone crops, and informed  by his own cutting-edge experiments,  renowned scientist Andreas Wagner  demonstrates that innovations can come  frequently and cheaply to nature, well  before they are needed. We have found  prehistoric bacteria that harbour the  remarkable ability to fight off 21^st-century  antibiotics. And human history fits the  pattern too, as life-changing technologies  are invented only to be forgotten,  languishing in the shadows before they finally take off.

In probing the mysteries of these  sleeping beauties, Wagner reveals a crucial  part of nature’s rich and strange tapestry.