Thread by @Lawbitrage

A few years back I started a journey to learn more about biopharma and drug discovery. Here is a list of the books I have found helpful (loosely grouped by topic) with the outstanding books highlighted by (+++). Feel free to add your own recommendations, I'll keep adding mine.

(+++) The Breakthrough – Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer by Charles Graeber @TheGoodNurseBK -> Excellent popular science book on the history of immunotherapy, a must-read!

A Cure Within – Scientists Unleashing the Immune System to Kill Cancer by Neil Canavan @Nfcanavan -> Excellent overview of the key scientific minds are their projects in cancer immunotherapy.

(+++) The Drug Hunters – The Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines by Donald Kirsch -> Great insights into how new drugs have been discovered and developed.

Happy Accidents – Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton Meyers -> A good book describing the role and value of serendipity – not just chance, but the unsystematic way of making scientific progress – in medicine.

The Lock and Key of Medicine – Monoclonal Antibodies and the Transformation of Healthcare by Lara Marks -> The definite book on probably the most important drug modality of our times!

The Quest for the Cure – The Science and Stories Behind the Next Generation of Medicines by Brent Stockwell @bstockwell -> Good overview of drug discovery on the small molecule side.

Her 2 – The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer by Robert Bazell -> One of the most important medicines ever and also one of the first successful monoclonal antibodies make Hercpetin/HER-2 an interesting case study.

Making Medicine – Surprising Stories from the History of Drug Discovery by Keith Veronese @KeithVeronese -> Another great collection of case studies on the discovery of many of today’s staples of medicine such as Penicillin or Aspirin.

(+++) For Blood and Money – Billionaires, Biotech and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug by Nathan Vardi @nathanvardi -> An excellent corporate biography and the story behind the multi-blockbuster drug Imbruvica, a must read!

(+++) The Vaccine – Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 by Joe Miller @JoeMillerJr -> The incredible insider story of how the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine came into being. Must read!

The Billion-Dollar Molecule – The Quest for the Perfect Drug by Barry Werth -> Pretty unique to have a journalist study a biotech from the inside from its very beginning and that company then turning into one of the biggest success stories in the industry.

The Antidote – Inside the World of New Pharma by Barry Werth -> The sequel to “Billion-Dollar Molecule”, should be read together.

Medicine, Science and Merck by Roy Vagelos -> Many biotech companies have modelled themselves after Merck during the Vagelos area, here is the inside account by the man himself.

Genentech – The Beginnings of Biotech by Sally Smith Hughes -> Good overview of the early days of Genentech; I would also recommend the HBS case studies of Genentech`s work with(in) the Roche Group which is quite unique.

The Messenger – Moderna, the Vaccine, and the Business Gamble that Changed the World by Peter Loftus @Loftus -> Very good inside peek into how Moderna was set up and how the development of the Spikevax vaccine.

(+++) Analyzing Biotech Clinical Trials by Frank David @Frank_S_David -> An absolute must read with tons of real world examples, you will gain a completely new understanding of how to interpret corporate releases relating to clinical trial results. Absolutely loved this one!

Essential Biostatistics – A Nonmathematical Approach by Harvey Motulsky @Hmotulsky -> This book does what the title says, easily readable into to biostatistics, makes sense to read this book in conjunction with “Analyzing Biotech Clinical Trials”.

An Introduction to Clinical Trials by Jonathan Cook -> A thorough overview of the topic, probably more geared towards the practitioner than the ley person.

(+++) The Song of the Cell – An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee @DrSidMukherjee -> Mukherjee obviously needs no introduction and this is an absolutely fantastic book on the cell, from its discovery in the late 1600s to today cell therapies.

The Epigenetics Revolution – How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance by Nessa Carey -> Probably the best scientific book on epigenetics, the book goes pretty deep at times, but recommended for anyone interested in the topic.

Master Builder – How the New Science of the Cell is Rewriting the Story of Life by Alfonso Martinez Arias @AMartinezArias -> This book puts the cell – instead of our genes – at the center of biology. Interesting and deeply researched book with a focus on embryonic development.

The Machinery of Life by David Goodsell @dsgoodsell -> A look into cells. The illustrations are beautiful and help to understand the building blocks of life.

(+++) A Crack in Creation – The New Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer Doudna -> The discovery of CRISPR is probably one of the most monumental in biology. What better way to learn about CRISPR than by Jennifer Doudna herself! Very well written book, highly recommended!

(+++) The Code Breaker – Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson @WalterIsaacson -> Excellent history of the discovery and scientific controversies around the CRISPR technology, expertly told!

How the Immune System Works by Lauren Sompayrac -> Very good short intro to the basics of the immune system, good place to start when trying to understand immunology and immunotherapy.

Immune – A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive by Philipp Dettmer @Kurz_Gesagt -> This is a “different” kind of science book with really cool illustrations and a great way to impart knowledge, I recommend it!

(+++) Spillover – Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen @DavidQuammen -> One of the best books I have ever read. Required reading for anyone interested in pandemics, just an extraordinary book.

Breathless – The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen -> There are many books on the COVID-19 pandemic and this is probably the best, including a nuanced analysis of the lab leak theory.

Flu – The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Kolata @ginakolata -> Excellent book on the 1918 flu pandemic and the strange story of the hunt for the virus decades after the outbreak.

The Viral Storm – The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe -> Another good look at pandemics and our (lack of) preparedness.

Deadly Outbreaks – How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites by Alexandra Levitt

Vaccinated – One Man`s Quest to Defeat the World`s Deadliest Diseases by Paul Offit @DrPaulOffitMD -> This book chronicles the life of Maurice Hilleman, the father of modern vaccines who more or less single-handedly developed nine (!) of today’s widely used vaccines.

House on Fire – The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox by William Foege -> The story of how smallpox was eradicated, highly recommended.

DNA – The Story of the Genetic Revolution by James Watson -> A classic, covering the initial discoveries as well as the future of the genome.

The $1,000 Genome – The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine by Kevin Davies -> An interesting book; it is fascinating to see how much has happened since the book was published in 2010 already.

Genome – The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley -> This book was published in 2000 and since then our understanding of the genome has expanded dramatically hence some parts of the book are naturally dated, nevertheless a very readable overview of the topic.

The Story of Life – Great Discoveries in Biology by Sean Carroll @SeanBiolCarroll -> Sean Carroll is the author of one of my favorite books ever (“The Serengeti Rules”). “The Story of Life” is a collection of essays about the major discoveries in biology.

(+++) An Epidemic of Absence – A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases by Moises Velasquez-Manoff @moisesvm -> There are very few fact-based books on autoimmune disorders out there, with this one being exception, sometimes controversial, but interesting!

(+++) Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection by Sam Apple @Sam_Apple1 -> Fantastic book, partly biography of Nobel laureate Otto Warburg (which in itself is amazing) and partly an examination of the link between cancer rates and sugar.

The Laws of Medicine by Siddhartha Mukherjee -> Very short book but filled with really cool insights about the validity of tests and Beysian thinking, and more.

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia @PeterAttiaMD -> Peter Attia`s podcast is a must-listen to anyone interested in this field. In his book “Outlive” he distills his finding on the subject of longevity in a conscience and scientific way, highly recommended.

From Breakthrough to Blockbuster – The Business of Biotechnology by Donald Drakeman -> Good overview of the industry, especially for new those new to this field.

(+++) Biotech Forecasting and Valuation by Frank David @Frank_S_David -> Excellent short book on biotech valuation, this book contains all the necessary stats to populate a biotech DCF model based on lots of real world data.

That`s it for now, I will add to this thread as time goes by; feel free to share and add your favorite books!
@BertrandBio @John_Hempton @JMaraganore @BiotechTVHQ @hubermanlab @bradloncar @JacobPlieth @paras_biotech @jq1234t @adamfeuerstein @FoundersPodcast @megtirrell

Blue Dreams - The Science and the Story of the Drugs That Changed our Minds by Lauren Slater -> Well written book on the inventors behind common psychiatric drugs, it places a larger focus on the (often accidantial) invention stories rather than the actual science of the drugs.

CRISPR-CAS - Applications in Gene Editing & Beyond by Roohi Bansal -> A scientific book, not aimed at the lay person, but nevertheless very well structured and overall well suited for a deep dive into CRISPR gene editing.

Editing Humanity - The Crispr Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing by Kevin Davies -> Very good primer on genome editing (not just CRISPR). Overall the book contains maybe too many stories, but this writing style makes the topic fairly accessible.

Transformer - The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death by Nick Lane -> This book covers the Krebs cycle, i.e. the transformation of inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life. Very interesting topic, however I found the chemistry part not that easy to understand.

Active Biological Evolution – Feedback-Driven, Actively Accelerated Organismal and Cancer Evolution by Frank Laukien -> Interesting book, focus on non-genetic drivers of evolution like epigenetic modifications and the role of the transcriptome and proteomics over just DNA itself.

(+++) The Catalyst – RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets by Thomas Cech -> Fantastic book on the probably most important molecule for life on earth. Cech not only tells the story of RNAs discovery , but also its therapeutic applications in siRNA, mRNA, CRISPR, etc.

Top Drugs - Their History, Pharmacology, and Syntheses by Jie Jack Li -> This is a good read for anyone interested in the scientific stories behind the top small molecule drugs of the past decades. It is quite heavy on the chemistry side though.

In Pursuit of Unicorns: A Journey Through 50 Years of Biotechnology by Tim Harris -> >This is a comprehensive account of essentially all relevant biotech companies over the past 50 years. Some background knowledge is required, but good overview of the sector.

(+++) How Life Works by Philip Ball -> An outstanding book highlighting the importance of RNA, proteomics and our cells over and above genes alone. Should be required reading for our modern understanding of biology.

Hallelujah Moments - Tales of Drug Discovery by Eugene Cordes -> A very good book on small molecule drug discovery with multiple detailed real world case studies, learned a lot from this one!

Doctored – Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's by Charlies Piller -> Very good account of fraud in Alzheimer's research and medical research in general.

Systems Medicine – Physiological Circuits and the Dynamics of Disease by Uri Alon -> A unique book that looks at medicine from a quantitative, systems approach by building mathematical models and feedback loops for how diseases occurs. Quite mathematical at times, but interesting

Managing Discovery in the Life Sciences - Harnessing Creativity to Drive Biomedical Innovation -> Great collection of case studies for various drugs and modalities. Recommended reading.

Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity -> First book on the GLP-1 story, well written and a good story, but unfortunately the book gets some of the pharma terminology wrong.

(+++) Bottle of Lies – Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma by Katherine Eban
-> Simply fantastic book on the Ranbaxy scandal. Also a great deep dive on the pharmaceutical manufacturing standards in India and China and a good primer on GMP regulations and FDA inspections.