Patient Number One: A True Story of How One CEO Took on Cancer and Big Business in the Fight of His Life

In 1996, Murdock used an experimental procedure--which involved removing stem cells from his bone marrow, cleaning them with chemotherapy and radiation and then reintroducing the cleansed cells back into the marrow--to treat his advanced lymphoma. What made his case so unusual was that, at the time, he was CEO of CellPro, a Seattle-based biotechnology company experimenting with the very procedure, separating cancer cells from stem cells, needed to save his life. With the assistance of Fisher (coauthor with George Burns of All My Best Friends), Murdock dramatically describes how a team of CellPro scientists raced frantically to finish what they called ""the Rick Project""--although the researchers calculated they were nine months away from refining their cell separation device, they were able to perfect it in just eight weeks. As Murdock began using these newly developed technologies to fight for his life, a giant multinational corporation was suing CellPro for patent infringement. Although a jury had unanimously sided with CellPro, the judge overturned the verdict, finding CellPro guilty. As a result, shortly after Murdock finished his treatment, CellPro was effectively out of business--and the device that saved his life was no longer available. Explaining both his own experiences and the complex world of biotech patents and politics, Murdock, now CEO of a medical-device company, makes a strong argument that progress in scientific research too often takes a backseat to business interests. (May)