Bottle of lies

Bottle of lies by Katherine Eban exposes a medical company called Ranbaxy which has manufacturing plants in 11 countries and sales in 125 countries. Ranbaxy kept manufacturing drugs against the FDA regulations by manipulating just the data and not following any proper testing procedure for generic drugs.

The book is based on well researched data, and there is just so much of it covering 512 pages that I found it tedious at times.

The book traces the journey of Dinesh thakur, a former employee of Ranbaxy who left the firm as he couldn't live a life of lies while the lives of so many people who consumed those drugs were at risk. Mr.Thakur chose the tough path but one that would let his conscience free. How many of us would do that?. Like be a whistleblower. Isn't it far easy to just keep working as you are paid for it?

We live in a 'business' driven world and no sector is spared from it.

"Is deference to authority everything?", Thakur questions . It takes courage to stand by your principles , to think beyond profit/loss value. In today's world if you do that ,you would even be ousted by the 'majority'.

It took almost 18 months for the FDA to take action against Ranbaxy even with proof that's clear like the light of the day.That's more than a year to start investigating them.

The later part of the book is about how many other generic drug manufacturing companies followed Ranbaxy's way to markets across the globe. And how poor countries who would choose the lowest bid suffered the most. The effect of generic drugs on patients are appalling.

I don't understand the apathetic world we are living in. People don't give a rat's ass about anything until it affects them.

It's amazing when people put their lives at risk for a cause larger than self. Truth is stranger than fiction and Thakurs story exemplifies this.

Please do give this a read as you must know the process behind manufacturing that pill you take daily that supposedly keeps you in good health.

I am afraid if the story is over yet. The people we know and not know might be living it.