The Billion-Dollar Molecule is a non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

 book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

 written by journalist Barry Werth about the founding and early research efforts of the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 company Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company with activities spanning the length of the pharmaceutical product pipeline, from target identification through to clinical trials and marketing. Most of its activity has been in collaboration with much larger pharmaceutical firms, though some of its...

, which was founded in 1989 by Joshua Boger and was among the first biotechnology companies to adopt an explicit strategy of rational drug design as opposed to techniques based on combinatorial chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry involves the rapid synthesis or the computer simulation of a large number of different but structurally related molecules or materials...

.

This book is notable as an inside look at a biotechnology company, and the stresses and marketing pressures on funding research into drug design.This book is a mixture of Finance and Technology.