Strong Medicine (53 page)

activists. Another thing-when they're ruthless and unethical, as they can

be sometimes, you should ask yourself: where did they learn to be that

way? The answer is: from companies like yours, my dear, because, when no

one was watching them, ruthless and unethical is the way they were."

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Celia would have appreciated Andrew's last remark more if she had witnessed

a scene at the Citizens for Safer Medicine offices a few minutes after she

left on Friday afternoon.

Summoning an assistant, Dr. Stavely asked, "Has that woman who was with me

gone?"

When the answer was yes, Stavely instructed the young man, "I want a press

conference called for tomorrow morning-as early as you can arrange it. You

will say that the subject is an urgent, lifeand-death matter affecting

hospitals and patients. Make sure you get the television networks and press

wire services. There'll be a news release to be issued at the same time,

which I'm going to write now. Someone will have to work tonight to . . ."

The brisk, efficient instructions continued, and at 10 A.M. next morning

the press conference began.

Facing reporters, and on camera, Dr. Stavely described the IN. fluid

problem she had discussed with Celia the preceding day-the

bacteria-contaminated bottles and the resultant septicemia, believed

responsible for several deaths. What the CSM leader did not mention was

either Celia or the information Celia had given her, namely that the FDA

had already decided to forbid further use of all existing IN. fluid

supplies from the company concerned, and that an announcement to that

effect would be made on Monday.

Instead, Stavely declared, "Citizens for Safer Medicine deplores the

inaction both of the Food and Drug Administration and the manufacturer of

this potentially deadly material. Further, we demand-yes, demand!-that all

supplies of this IN. fluid be banned from use-and recalled . - ."

The effect was immediate. The major TV networks carried the story on their

evening national news, while next day's Sunday newspapers gave it

prominence, in many cases using an Associated Press photo of Stavely in

action. Thus on Monday, when FDA delivered its announcement, most

reporters-not bothering to check-began their stories, "Today, responding

swiftly to a demand by Dr. Maud Stavely and her Citizens for Safer

Medicine, the FDA announced a ban on further use by hospitals of . . ."

It was a triumphal coup dl&lat for CSM and, soon afterward, was used

prominently in a mailed brochure appealing for donations.

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Celia, who followed the sequence of events with some embarrassment, kept

the knowledge of her own involvement to herself. She had learned a lesson.

She had, she realized, been foolishly indiscreet, and then had been made

use of by a master tactician.

To Celia's surprise there was not, anywhere at Felding-Roth headquarters, a

trial transcript of the Australian court case which had involved Montayne.

Nor could the company's legal department locate one in the United States.

There were plenty of reports that quoted it, but now Celia wanted to read

the proceedings in their entirety. Although, obviously, Maud Stavely had a

copy, Celia felt disinclined to ask Citizens for Safer Medicine to lend it;

she therefore instructed the legal department to cable a correspondent law

firm in Australia and have one sent by air.

Meanwhile there were plenty of other things to do. The promotional program

that would launch Montayne was now proceeding at a frantic tempo as the

February deadline neared. Celia, aided by her deputy, Bill Ingram, was

responsible for the several million dollars spent already; still more money

was allocated for the months ahead.

Elaborate advertising--expensive four-page multicolor insertswas appearing

in a profusion of medical magazines, while an avalanche of direct mail was

going out to the nation's physicians and pharmacists. Among promotional

items being sent was a cassette tape--on one side, a recording of the

beautiful Brahms "Wiegenlied" (Lullaby), on the other, a clinical

description of Montayne. Backing up the advertising and direct mail, the

company's detail men and women were delivering thousands of sample packages

of Montayne to doctors, at the same time dropping on their desks golf tees

and ball markers imprinted with "Montayne."

At all levels of the company, as with any new drug launching. there was a

mix of excitement, circus, nervousness and hope.

Also creating hope, in an even wider dimension, was some news

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from the Felding-Roth Research Institute in Britain. There, it seemed,

Martin Peat-Smith's scientific team had successfully broken through the

technical barrier which had baffled them for so long. Complete details were

lacking-Martin's report had been brief and in general terms only-but it

appeared the now demolished barrier was the one of which Dr. Rao Sastri had

said, when talking with Celia eighteen months earlier, "There are no tech-

niques to take us further . . . possibly in ten years from now

Celia was delighted to learn that, in this specific at least, Sastri had

been wrong and Martin right.

What was known, via a letter from Nigel Bentley, the Harlow administrator,

was that the British technical achievement involved purification of a brain

peptide mixture obtained from rats, and maze tests on rats had shown it to

be effective in improving the memories of older animals. More experimental

work was proceeding.

Clearly, while a medication to improve human memory was an unknown number

of years away, it was much more of a possibility than at any previous time.

The news was timely in that it forestalled the latest attempt, by some

members of the board, to close the Harlow institute-again because of high

costs and an absence of results. Now, with some positive results, Harlow

and the mental aging project appeared safe for the time being.

This, too, pleased Celia, who felt happier in having recommended against

closure of Harlow a year and a half earlier.

In mid-December the Australian trial transcript for which Celia had asked

arrived on her desk. It was a bulky typewritten volume, several hundred

pages long. By then, however, the pressures on Celia were such that she was

obliged to put it aside for later reading. The transcript still had not

been read by early January, when another event occurred ' which was totally

unexpected and seemed likely to push her reading even farther into the

future.

Now that President-elect Carter had surprised the world by securing the

White House tenancy for the next four years, outriders for the new

administration were urgently recruiting candidates for the many government

posts which Republicans would soon vacate. Among those recruited was

Felding-Roth's corporate vice president for sales and merchandising, Xavier

Rivkin.

Xav Rivkin, a lifelong Democrat and more recently an ardent

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Carter supporter, had given time and money in the election campaign; be

also knew the new President, having served with him in the Navy. From all

this, a reward now arrived-the offer of a post as assistant secretary in

the Department of Commerce.

Within Felding-Roth, news of the offer was at first kept secret, as was

the fact that Xav wanted to accept. Sam Hawthorne and a few members of

the board, between whom the matter was discussed privately, believed he

should. There was an awareness that it would do the company no harm to

have a friend in Washington at Commerce. Quietly, a special and generous

early pension arrangement was made, with Rivkin due to leave soon after

the January 20 presidential inauguration.

In the second week of January, Sam sent for Celia and informed her of the

Rivkin arrangements, of which she had not heard previously but which

would be common knowledge in a day or two.

"Quite frankly," he said, "no one, including me, expected this to happen

so soon but when Xav leaves, you'll move up to be vice president of sales

and merchandising. I've had discussions with the same members of the

board who approved the arrangements about Xav, and we realize this has

happened at an awkward time, with Montayne about to--" Sam stopped. "Is

something wrong?"

"Not really," Celia said. They had been standing, in his office, and she

asked, "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Of course. Please do." He waved her to a chair.

"And give me a minute to get my gears engaged." Her voice was huskier

than usual. "You may not realize it, but you did just drop a

thunderbolt."

Sam looked contrite. "Oh, hell, I'm sorry! I should have made this more

of an occasion. Some days I operate in such a damned hurry that-"

Celia said, "This way is fine. In fact any way is fine. You were saying

about Montayne . . ."

But the words were coming from a part of herself that was detached. Her

mind whirling, she was remembering an occasion seventeen years earlier

when the then vice president of sales, Irv Gregson, now long departed,

had ordered her angrily from the company's New York sales convention

while an audience of hundreds watched . . . and Sam had saved her-from

the vice president and all the othersand now it was Sam who . . . Dammit!

I'm not going to cry, she told herself But she did, a little, and looked

up to see Sam holding out a handkerchief and smiling.

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"You earned it, Celia," he said gently. "All on your own, every step of the

way, and what I should have said sooner is--congratulations! I told Lilian

at breakfast and she's as pleased as I am; she said to tell you we'll all

get together soon."

"Thank you." She took the handkerchief, wiped her eyes, then said

matter-of-factly, "Please thank Lilian; and I thank you too, Sam, Now about

Montayne."

"Well," he cxplained, "because you've been so close to the plans for

launching Montayne, I and those board members I spoke of would like you to

see them through, even while you're taking over the bigger responsibility.

It will mean a heavy load on you . . ."

Celia assured him, "That won't be a problem. And I agree about Montayne."

"At the same time," Sam pointed out, "you should think about a successor as

director of pharmaceutical sales."

"Bill Ingram," Celia said without hesitation. "He's good and he's readv.

He's also been working on Montayne."

The hitch ing-you r- wagon-to-som eon e-else's-sta r principle, she

thought, just as she had described it to Andrew on their honeymoon ---also

long ago. Celia had followed Sam upward, and how successfully her plan had

worked! Now Bill had followed Celia,- and who, she wondered, had already

attached themselves to Bill?

With an effort-her mind for the moment split in two---she concluded her

discussion with Sam.

That evening, when Celia told Andrew of her impending promotion, he hugged

her and said, "I'm proud of you! But then I always have been."

"Most of the time," she corrected him. "There were moments when you

weren't."