The Cure

Rarely do I stay up late to finish a book but this book just drew me in.  It is a fascinating true story that is intense and unbelievable.  The book is called Cure. 

The story of of a family who had their whole lives ahead of them until two of the kids are diagnosed with a rare disease called Pompe.  What is incredible is how the father refused to accept the diagnosis and decided to take matters into his own hands.  He was a serious type A person to begin with but this breaks all boundaries.

John Crowley quits his job as a marketing executive, becomes a CEO at a start-up biotech company that is working on cures for the Pompe disease and in one year grows the company and sells it to Genzyme Corp for a news breaking $137.5 million dollars.  Part of the deal is he goes to work for Genzyme and rolls up the other 3 organizations with in Genzyme that was also bought and working on the same disease and picks the winner.  He then proceeds to use his kids as tests for the drug.  He saves his kids life.

The ups and downs of the disease, the deterioration of the family unit, the growth of a young biotech company being funded by Venture Capitalists, the naivete of John Crowley was probably his biggest asset otherwise he would have never pulled this off.

It is a true American story.