The Cell Game

January 26, 2004
Since the ImClone scandal first broke, most of the media's attention has focused on CEO Sam Waksal's insider trading and the charges filed against Martha Stewart, a close friend and investor in the pharmaceutical company. Prud'homme, who first reported on ImClone for Vanity Fair
, reminds readers of the bigger story, the one that set the financial hijinx in motion: ImClone's failed attempt to bring a potentially groundbreaking cancer medication, Erbitux, to market. This story tells of scientists like John Mendelsohn, who led the research into C225, the antibody at the heart of Erbitux, and patients like Shannon Kellum, a 28-year-old woman diagnosed with colon cancer for whom the medication was a "miracle drug" that added a few years to her life. She was one of the rare lucky ones; Prud'homme's reporting is especially strong when he delves into the seemingly haphazard way in which ImClone distributed C225 for "compassionate use" during the clinical testing period. The FDA's rejection of ImClone's "scientifically incomplete" test data was the immediate motivation for Waksal's crimes, but Prud'homme's portrayal suggests it was completely in character for the reckless social-climbing executive, described by acquaintances as a "pathological liar" who cared more about making money than about curing cancer. Prud'homme ends his compelling account with Waksal's sentencing, and even though he'll inevitably have to update the paperback to wrap up coverage of the Martha Stewart trial, it's well worth reading the book now to appreciate what's really at stake in ImClone's downfall.

February 15, 2004
Sometimes, fact is far stranger than fiction. The rise and fall of ImClone is a dramatic example, starting with the story of its co-founders, Sam and Harlan Waksal; the "breakthrough" cancer drug Erbitux developed by Dr. John Mendelsohn; the thousands of desperate cancer patients waiting to use this experimental drug; and the insider trading scandal that ultimately brought down Sam Waksal (and for which Martha Stewart is going to trial). Journalist Prud'homme has written a fast-paced, absorbing, and dramatic account that not only explores the events leading up to the scandal but also the story of ImClone and the development of Erbitux, plus stories of the scandal's true victims-cancer patients such as Shannon Kellum, who were granted at least temporary reprieves from the ravages of cancer. Prud'homme has done extensive research and interviewed key players in the saga, as well as cancer patients. An important, excellent book that makes for fascinating reading, this is highly recommended to public and academic libraries.-Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2004
As this is written, jurors are being selected for lifestyle-marketing entrepreneur Martha Stewart's trial on charges of insider trading of her shares in the small drug-development company ImClone. Stewart was a friend to ImClone CEO Sam Waksal, and he is already in prison for doing as she allegedly did on a much larger scale. As large as that scale was, Waksal's ill-gotten gains didn't begin to match his personal indebtedness. He loved living large, knowing the stars, and being part of the in crowd. The son of Holocaust survivors, a medical researcher who shifted from the lab to a front office, and charming as the day is long, Waksal had waited long enough to cash in when, in the mid-1990s, he seized on a promising cancer drug as ImClone's and his winning ticket. He cut a deal with pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb to produce the substance and launched the tests necessary to get the drug FDA approval. But he was living so high that he felt compelled to cut corners and rush the payoff. When the FDA balked--as it should have--his personal house of cards collapsed. The drug and ImClone didn't fall with him, which is fortunate mostly because, as Prud'homme shows in the most interesting pages of his long, exemplarily written report, the stuff remains very promising as a specific against tumors.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)