Sweet dreams

The secret history of Halcion belies the drug’s soothing name. In The
Therapeutic Nightmare, John Abraham and Julie Sheppard spotlight this
sleeping pill, taken by 100 million people a day, to expose the ongoing battle
between multinational drugs companies, national regulatory agencies, and doctors
and scientists—a melee in which patients’ needs can easily be trampled.
Scrupulously researched, this blow-by-blow account of Halcion’s capture of the
world market, despite its banning in Britain, is anything but soporific.
Published by Earthscan, £14.95, ISBN 1853836508.