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When investigative medical reporter Eban found a Florida warehouse filled with medicine of every conceivable kind stacked next to bottles of lighter fluid and a bunch of old rags -- the label-changing tools of the counterfeit trade -- she knew she'd hit pay dirt. But by this point in her startling book, Dangerous Doses, readers are already on a first-name basis with the five investigators involved in breaking the case. These five -- drug inspectors, Miami detectives, and a former cop -- had marshaled their forces to protect Floridians from adulterated, expired, or mishandled prescription drugs, and Eban spent two and a half years with them, weaving together her story of drug supply corruption, not merely in Florida but throughout the nation.

Americans spend nearly $216 billion to fill over 3 billion prescriptions a year, and most believe that what they ingest, inject, or apply topically travels from the drug maker to their pharmacy through pristine labs and warehouses filled with men in white coats. But Eban discovered a different route, one driven by middlemen: wholesalers who sell diverted, degraded, and expired medicine traded by felons and accompanied by falsified paperwork. The truth is chilling and complex, but Eban's intelligent writing, careful plotting, and dogged reporting make for a suspenseful and shocking read, and she offers a battle-ready road map for combating the problem, including excellent practical advice for consumers. (Fall 2005 Selection)

Publishers Weekly

It's hard to imagine that, with the U.S. government's oversight of the development and production of pharmaceuticals, the pills you get from your pharmacist may be counterfeit. But according to medical reporter Eban, those pills often pass through dozens of hands, exchanged in dark parking lots and the backrooms of strip clubs for thousands of dollars in cash, possibly resold and relabeled several times. It might contain a twentieth of the dosage written on the label, or nothing but tap water. Eban, formerly with the New York Times, follows a group of five investigators to reveal how pervasive a problem drug counterfeiting is in the U. S. Operation Stone Cold, as the South Florida investigation was called, comprised a hodgepodge of pharmacists and policemen who shared a fanatical devotion to stopping adulterated drugs from reaching the public, despite uninterested supervisors, understaffed regulatory agencies and state laws that made offenses almost impossible to prosecute. The book reads like a good novel, though the cast of villains is so dizzying and the timeline so complicated that the action is sometimes hard to follow. Unfortunately there is no happy ending the fight to protect the domestic drug supply continues. If this book receives wide attention, it could deal another blow to an already reeling pharmaceutical industry and users of prescription drugs will be wary after reading it. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

salon.com

An exposé that wades into more rank Florida unseemliness than a Carl Hiaasen novel, and easily boasts three times the number of sleazebag villains.

Kirkus

An investigative journalist digs into the chilling story of how degraded, expired, contaminated and diluted medicines are being sold to American pharmacies and hospitals. The result is a story rich in distinctive characters whose actions range form courageous to outrageous. Vivid writing and impressive documentation in a powerful indictment of a system in need of immediate repair."

US News and World Report

A riveting account of a 2 1/2-year investigation in south Florida . . . . As Eban recounts, the scam was broken wide open by a ''ragtag'' group of seasoned investigators who seem as if they were cast right out of an episode of The Wire."

— Bernadine Healy

New York Sun

A riveting tale. "Dangerous Doses" is part detective story, part pharmacological primer.

Washington Post Book World

Warning: Katherine Eban''s Dangerous Doses can give you headaches, raise your blood pressure and provoke anxiety. In extreme cases, it can leave you staring at a bottle of medicine and wondering: What do these pills really contain? ... In her vibrant tale, Eban introduces us to these people and makes the message clear: It shouldn''t happen to anyone, and it could happen to you."

Boston Globe

In a style reminiscent of some of the best detective storytellers, Eban takes us breathlessly through robberies, back-room deals, cluttered and dirty warehouses, crooked dealers, sociopathic profiteers, shell companies, and state and federal laws so porous that convicted felons can become prescription-drug brokers

The Nation

Katherine Eban combines investigative diligence, a natural story teller''s gift for narrative, and a consumer advocate''s practical prescriptions for what to do about the counterfeit drugs that may have contaminated the supply at your local drug store. The result: A rare literary event -- muckraking with a human face.

— Victor Navasky, Publisher and Editorial Director

Newark Star-Ledger

Katherine Eban''s expose on the poorly regulated prescription drug distribution system will have you calling your doctor to check your meds. To put it simply, she''s done her homework on a terribly neglected system. " -- Razor magazine
"In "Dangerous Doses," Katherine Eban showed how vulnerable America''s drug supply is to counterfeiters. With such dangers lurking, it often seemed as if the real world trumped fiction this year

Publishers Weekly

The book reads like a good novel....If this book receives wide attention, it could deal another blow to an already reeling pharmaceutical industry and users of prescription drugs will be wary after reading it.

Library Journal

Americans pay top dollar to ensure that their prescription medications are safe, yet few realize that the current distribution process involves middlemen who open the way for criminal counterfeiting. Lax law enforcement and weak penalties have allowed counterfeiters to dilute or change the contents of the drugs and resell them for significant profit. Investigative medical reporter Eban spent more than two years conducting research and interviews to measure this problem fully. She follows the work of "the Horsemen"-a group of five dedicated drug inspectors and law enforcement officers in Florida who have diligently tried to put a stop to drug counterfeiting. The Horsemen have had many victories, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Few books have been written about this frightening topic, so Eban's expos will make a valuable addition to any library. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/05.]-Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An investigative journalist digs into the chilling story of how degraded, expired, contaminated and diluted medicines are being sold to American pharmacies and hospitals. Eban, a Rhodes scholar whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Observer, The Nation and other publications, spent two and a half years interviewing numerous government investigators and regulators, pharmaceutical wholesalers, doctors and patients, and reviewing surveillance videos, investigative reports, court records and other documents. The result is a story rich in distinctive characters whose actions range from courageous to outrageous. Fortunately, the author has provided an annotated list of the major players in her enormous cast. The story begins with a 2002 break-in at a pharmaceutical warehouse in Florida and follows investigators as they pursue those trafficking in counterfeit drugs. What Eban found was that large volumes of drugs made by U.S. pharmaceutical companies don't flow directly from manufacturer to hospital or pharmacy but are sold and resold in a gray market without a paper trail or with phony papers that obscure their origin. To become a pharmaceutical wholesaler in Florida requires only a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a security alarm, $200 for a security bond and $700 for a license. Aided by lax regulations, holders of these licenses, many of them criminal kingpins and street thugs, make fortunes trading in adulterated and counterfeit drugs. Eban shows the tragic results through her stories of patients whose lives have been affected by bogus medicines they believed were legitimate. Even more disturbing is what she reveals about the weakness of federal oversight in thedistribution of pharmaceuticals. Her concluding two-page summary of the steps consumers can take to protect themselves from counterfeit drugs is little comfort. Vivid writing and impressive documentation in a powerful indictment of a system in need of immediate repair.

What People Are Saying

This is a book that comes along so rarely in non-fiction -- brilliantly reported, written with the pace of a potboiler and harrowing in its societal repercussions. In Dangerous Doses, Katherine Eban takes us on a journey into the underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry so spooky and strange and sinister and deadly, you will have a hard time believing it is true. But it is, every word, which only makes Dangerous Doses shine even more.

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