Faster Cures : Accelerating the Future of Health

Partly a memoir and partly a recent history of medicine, the definitive account of Michael Milken’s lifetime work to accelerate medicine's evolution from a dark past to a bright future.

What if cleaning early-stage cancers from your body could become as routine as going to the dentist to clean your teeth, or if a single vaccine could protect you against multiple viruses, or if gene editing could eliminate many birth defects and slow the aging process? Mike Milken believes these, and many other advances, are within reach.

Beginning with a description of the 1950s civilization and culture that helped shape Milken's early views, Faster Cures traces the life-extending acceleration of progress in medical research, public health, and clinical treatments over the seven decades since Milken’s childhood—and shows how he helped transform the process of developing disease cures. Among many examples, he recognized the promise of immunology more than twenty-five years ago and provided crucial support for the emergence of immunotherapy as a powerful life-saving treatment.

Detailing his unique personal journey from a curious boy with an insatiable thirst for knowledge to his storied careers in finance and health, this book focuses on the events that made Milken what Fortune magazine called “The Man Who Changed Medicine.” The combined influences of social upheaval in the 1960s and family medical crises in the 1970s propelled him to dual quests on Wall Street and in medical research.

Known worldwide as a legendary financier, philanthropist, medical research innovator, and public health advocate, Milken tells fascinating anecdotes and explains his inspiring crusade to accelerate cures and treatments so that more people around the world can live longer, healthier, and more meaningful lives.

Michael Milken’s career encompasses medical research, education, public health, and access to capital. His 1970s philanthropy expanded in 1982 with the establishment of the Milken Family Foundation. After two decades of actively supporting medical research, he became a patient when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1993. Milken also chairs the Milken Institute, a widely respected think tank. Over the last three decades, he has increased his focus on making the research process more effective and efficient. A Berkeley graduate, he earned his MBA at the Wharton School. He and his wife, Lori, have been married since 1968.