Strong Medicine

In a novel that could have been pulled from today's headlines, Dr. Tom Barrett, respected surgeon and returning war veteran, discovers the rules as set by the pharmaceutical industry. They're dangerously effective: skyrocketing prices, misleading advertising, manipulation of health care professionals, rigged research, and the suppression of competition. Unscrupulous executives deploy them with a single objective: spike earnings by ensuring that medicines are scarce for patients whose survival depends on them.

Barrett's answer is to assemble a team of specialists to take on the predators. He creates PharmaTruth - a group of motivated flesh and blood characters. In chapters that take readers behind the scenes of the industry, they face real-life, tight budgets as they set out to battle cynical big pharma executives who've long ago crossed the line from greedy to criminal.

Dr. Robert M. Reece's novel Strong Medicine is a high-stakes game, where big pharma is determined to crush PharmaTruth's assault on their domain, even as Tom and his team struggle to set things right.

Robert M. Reece practiced, taught, and did research in pediatrics for over forty years, specializing in diagnosis and treatment of child abuse cases. He published nine textbooks, nearly fifty articles, and twenty-seven book chapters. He founded and was Editor of The Quarterly Update from 1993 until 2017. His debut novel, To Tell The Truth, describes a fictional case of a young babysitter charged with the murder of a seven-month-old infant in her care.In Double Blind Double Cross, he writes about surgeon Tom Barrett, a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, (PTSD) and his experiences while participating in a clinical trial of a new drug for PTSD. Tom and two fellow patients immerse themselves in a high stakes investigation that reveals a shocking answer that would question practices in parts of the pharmaceutical industry.The Lewellyns from Vincennes is the story of a twentieth century family whose lives are buffeted by personal losses, two world wars, the Great Depression, and family triumphs. Based on a true story, its tapestry is woven with invention of scenes and fictional dialogue and is ultimately a tale of redemption and resilience. In 2024, he published his latest novel, About Ben, the based-on-true story of a medical student stricken with polio who becomes the pediatrician's pediatrician.Learn more at www.robertmreece.com