Malcolm Gladwell on Cancer-Drug Development
Mass screening or rational design? Malcolm Gladwell, the 10,000-hours guy with Leo Sayer's hair, examines the monumental barriers to finding effective treatments for cancer in the upcoming issue of the New Yorker.
Given the oppressive anti-pharma mood generated by mainstream media and Marcia Angell, it's refreshing to have Gladwell remind us—in a really entertaining way, no less—just how "boinking" hard it is to bring an effective and safe cancer therapy to market.
I like Gladwell. He's not an original thinker -- and he'll gladly tell you as much -- but I don't think there's a writer today who has the ability to find interesting stories about fascinating people/events and write about it in a way that makes the reader as excited as him.
Michael Lewis is another -- who tends to write more about economics, whereas Gladwell is science heavy.