Strong Medicine (70 page)

In the days that followed, Celia persisted in her effort to have Sam's

death officially declared an accident. She succeeded, mainly because-as

she explained to Andrew-"No one seemed to have the heart to argue

otherwise. Sam didn't carry life insurance, so financially it didn't

matter."

After a decent interval of two weeks, the Felding-Roth board of directors

met to elect a new president. Within the company it was assumed this was

a formality only, and that Celia would be appointed.

Seth Feingold came to tier office a few minutes after the directors'

meeting ended. His expression was grim.

"I've been deputed to tell you this," he said, "and I hate doing it. But

you aren't going to be president."

When Celia failed to react, he went on, "You may not believe this and,

by God, it isn't fair, but there are still some men on the board who

don't like the idea of a woman heading the company."

"I believe it," Celia said. "Some women have spent their lives

discovering it."

"There was a long argument, heated at times," Seth said. "The board was

split, and there were several who spoke out strongly in your favor. But

the objectors wouldn't budge. In the end, we had to compromise."

A president pro tempore had been appointed, Seth revealed. He was Preston

O'Halloran, a retired bank president who for many years had been a member

of the Felding-Roth board. He was seventy-eight and nowadays walked with

the aid of a cane. While respected and a financial expert, the new

president's knowledge of the pharmaceutical business was limited and

largely confined to what he learned at board meetings.

Celia had met O'Halloran several times, though without knowing him well.

She asked, "What's with the pro tem?"

"O'Halloran has agreed to serve for six months at the most. Sometime

between then and now the board will make a permanent

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appointment." Seth grimaced. "I may as well tell you there's talk of

looking for someone outside the company."

"I see. 11

"I suppose I shouldn't say this. But frankly, Celia, if I were in your

position I'd say, 'To hell with 'em all!' Then I'd walk out of here-right

now."

She shook her head negatively. "If I did, someone else would say, 'How

like a woman!' Besides, I agreed to come back to do a cleanup job, and

so I will. When it's finished, though . . . well, let's wait until then."

The conversation reminded her of one she had had years before with Sam,

when Celia had been made assistant director of Sales Training instead of

director, because-as Sam expressed it at the time-"There are some in the

company who can't swallow quite that much. Not yet."

Plus qa change, plus cest la meme chose, she quoted silently to herself.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

"Do you feel terribly hurt?" Andrew asked at dinner.

Celia thought before answering. "Yes, I suppose so. The injustice gets

to me. Yet in another way, strangely, I find I don't care as much as I

would have a few years ago."

"That's what I thought. Would you like me to tell you why?'t

She laughed. "Please do, Doctor."

"It's because you're a fulfilled woman, my love. Fulfilled in every way.

You're the best wife any man could have, and a superb mother, and you're

smart, responsible and competent at work, and can run rings around most

men. You've proved a thousand times how good you are. So you don't,

anymore, need the trappings and the titles because everybody who knows

you knows your worthincluding those chauvinist boobs on the Felding-Roth

board, not one of whom is worth your little finger. That's why what

happened today shouldn't cause you a second's anguish, because those who

made the decision are the losers, and sooner or later they'll find out."

Andrew stopped. "Sorry. I'didn't mean to make a speech. I just wanted to

state some truths and maybe cheer you up."

Celia got up from her chair and threw her arms around him. As she kissed

him she said, "As, indeed, you have."

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Winnie's baby-a healthy son-was born the following day. The event

delighted not only Winnie and Hank, but the entire Jordan family, Lisa

phoning Winnie enthusiastically from California, Bruce from Pennsylvania.

Winnie, as usual, took everything in stride. "Looks like I 'it the

jackpot," she contended happily from her hospital bed. "Now p'raps

'A)-..k an' me should try fer twins."

9

Vincent Lord was a changed man. He radiated energy and happiness.

After almost twenty years of scientific dedication to a single idea, of

pursuing a dream which few other than himself believed indesigning that

drug to quench free radicals-the dream had at last come true. The decades

of dedication were about to be rewarded.

What was now feasible, needing only the completion of trials on animals

and humans to satisfy the law's requirements, was a drug which would make

other drugs, hitherto dangerous, beneficial and safe.

Hexin W-Lord's provisional name for his creation had, so far,

persisted-was being discussed avidly within the industry, although full

details remained a Felding-Roth secret. Other pharmaceutical firms, which

kept surveillance on patent filings and understood the implications of

this one, were already letting their interest be known.

As the head of a major competitive company expressed it in a telephone

call to Celia, "Naturally we wish our own researchers had discovered what

Dr. Lord appears to have done, but since they didn't, we want to be first

in line when you people are ready to talk deals."

Of equal interest was that the new drug would be usable in either of two

ways. It could be included as an active ingredient when other drugs were

formulated-that is, mixed in during manufactur-

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ing. Or it could be made up as a separate tablet, to be taken with other

medication,

Thus, Hexin W would be an "across-the-board" drug. Expressed another way,

it was a drug-scientist's drug, to be used by developers of other

pharmaceutical products, and marketed, not by one company, but by many.

The other companies would operate under license, with

royalties-presumably enormous-being paid to Felding-Roth.

Among principal beneficiaries from Hexin W would be arthritis and cancer

patients. Many strong potions for those conditions already existed, but

were prescribed sparingly, or not at all, because of dangerous side

effects. With Hexin W, those effects and dangers would be removed or

markedly reduced.

Vince Lord explained to Celia and several others during a sales planning

session what would happen with arthritis. He used nonscientific language.

"Sufferers get inflammation in the joints which causes immobility and

pain. It occurs when the disease condition generates free radicals which,

in turn, attract leukocytes-white blood cells. The leukocytes. pile up,

creating and worsening the inflammation.

"But Hexin W." Lord continued, "stops free-radical production, so

leukocytes are not attracted. Result-there is no inflammation, and pain

disappears."

The effiect of Lord's statement was such that several of his listeners

clapped their hands. He flushed with pleasure.

Lesser ailments, he added, would also have new choices of treatment,

because of Hexin W.

The big breakthrough with his research had come to Vince Lord some three

months earlier. It marked a gloriously satisfying victory in a laborious,

wearying process of trial and er-ror-a process frequently heartbreaking

and strewn with repeated failures.

The process itself was another measure of Lord's achievement because

nowadays, by some, it was regarded as outdated.

Expressed simply: the system developed new drugs from old drugs, making

use of organic chemistry. Beginning with an existing active compound, the

drug's chemistry was modified, then modified again . . . and again, and

again, and again . . . if necessary to infinity. Always, the search was

for a new effective drug, derived from the old, and with no, or low,

toxicity. Looking back, Lord remembered how, two years ago, after trying

nearly a thousand

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different compounds-all unsuccessful-he vowed he would never give up.

A differing, newer approach-employed by Sir James Black, the distinguished

developer of SmithKline's Tagamet-was to decide which biological disorder

might be corrected pharmaceutically, then create a totally new drug. Martin

Peat-Smith, at Harlow, was using genetic methods which were newer still.

However, even the last two involved years of experimentation and could end

in failure, though when they succeeded, revolutionary new drugs resulted.

But Lord had decided the older method was more suited to his purpose and

temperament and, by God!, he reminded himself, he had been right.

What caused his more immediate happiness was the small army of

specialists----chemists, biologists, physicians, clinical pharmacologists,

physiologists, toxicologists, veterinarians, pathologists, and

statisticians-who, at Felding-Roth, were working together, exercising their

talents to bring Hexin W to its final form.

Even so, because of a complex testing program in animals and humans, it

would be another two years before an application for general use of Hexin

W could be made to FDA.

While not saying so aloud, Lord had been pleased to hear of the setback to

Peat-Smith's Peptide 7 program. This, because a twoyear delay at Harlow

meant Hexin W might now be on the market first.

Lord's upbeat mood had even caused him to take an initiative in making

peace with Celia. Soon after her return to the company, he went to her

office. Offering congratulations on her new appointment, he told her, "I'm

glad to see you back."

"For that matter," Celia said, "congratulations to you. I've just read the

report on Hexin W."

"I expect it to be recognized as one of the major discoveries of the

century," Lord acknowledged matter-of-factly. Even a certain mellowing with

the passage of years had not dimmed his appreciation of his own worth.

In his conversation with 'Celia, Lord did not choose to admit she had been

right about Montayne, and himself wrong. His reasoning was that she had

merely made a lucky, unscientific guess; therefore she deserved no more

intellectual credit than did the holder of a winning lottery ticket.

Despite the tentative rapport with Celia, he was relieved when, after Sam

Hawthorne's death, she did not become president. That

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would have been too much to live with. For once, he thought, the board of

directors had shown some sense.

As the world entered the new year of 1978, Hexin W continued to be a strong

center of hope at Felding-Roth.

The appointment of Preston O'Halloran as Felding-Roth president pro tem

made little difference, if any, to Celia's responsibilities and day-by-day

routine. The day after the special board meeting, O'Halloran had been open

and frank with her.