‘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.

Consider the Negroni. The bittersweet cocktail dating to the early 1900s is made of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and Campari. Gin takes its name and flavour from the juniper tree, which medieval doctors burned to ward off bubonic plague and other miasmas. ‘Vermouth’ comes from the German word for wormwood, a herb famous for its ability to rid the body of intestinal parasites. Campari is a brand of liqueur dating to 1860 with a secret recipe probably containing gentian (effective against indigestion) and rhubarb root (used as a laxative). The perfect cocktail of curative ingredients is now self-prescribed as an aperitif.

The intertwined stories of medicine and alcohol stretch back to the ancient world, and involve alchemy, madness and monks, not to mention microbiology, biochemistry and germ theory. Now, in The Perfect Tonic, Camper English reveals how and why the contents of our medicine and liquor cabinets were, until surprisingly recently, one and the same.