Best-Selling Author Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Look at Seven Miracle Drugs

WASHINGTON, March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Millions of people throughout the world rely on prescription medicines each day to live full, productive lives. In his new book, New York Times number-one bestselling author Robert L. Shook takes readers behind-the-scenes of seven of the most well-known prescription medicines to chronicle the long and uncertain journey from laboratory to medicine cabinets.

"The stories behind these seven medicines show 'miracle medicines' don't just happen," says Shook in "Miracle Medicines: Seven Lifesaving Drugs and the People Who Created Them." "Breakthrough medicines can only occur in an environment that promotes harmony among science, industry and government."

"Miracle Medicines" is a classic American story of triumph and defeat. These are the stories of the often unrecognized medical heroes -- chemists, physiologists, medical and clinical researchers, and engineers -- working hard to transform scientific theories into new, lifesaving medicines.

Shook explores each medicine individually, revealing what really happens to bring each new drug from theory and research, to clinical trials and FDA approval, and finally, delivery to your pharmacy. Also profiled are the patients who benefit from these remarkable medicines and learn how, within their bloodstreams, an ongoing battle is raging.

  The drugs profiled are:
  -- Advair: GlaxoSmithKline's revolutionary asthma medication, the first
     packaged as both a control and emergency drug.
  -- Gleevec: Novartis's chronic myeloid leukemia treatment, born from
     decades of research in a field once considered hopeless.
  -- Humalog: Eli Lilly's reinvention of insulin to control diabetes,
     described as "better than nature."
  -- Lipitor: Pfizer's antidote for high cholesterol, now the world's top-
     selling medicine.
  -- Norvir: Abbott's contribution to the fight against HIV that nearly
     erases all traces of the disease from the bloodstream.
  -- Remicade: Johnson & Johnson's revolutionary biomedicine for the
     treatment of Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other immune
     mediated inflammatory diseases.
  -- Seroquel: AstraZeneca's treatment for both schizophrenia and bipolar
     disorder that has given millions of psychiatric patients a new lease on
     life.

Robert L. Shook, a prolific nonfiction writer, has authored more than fifty books, including "Longaberger," a New York Times number-one bestseller. He is currently working on a marketing book titled "The Customer Rules." He and his wife live in Columbus, Ohio.

Portfolio/$26.99/Hardcover/ISBN 978-1-59184-157-9/Publication Date: March 1, 2007