Healing Touch

Anand’s statement summed up her anxiety for her first book,that has also been adapted into a film,Extraordinary Measures,by Hollywood director Tom Vaughan starring Harrison Ford. The film released in the US in January. “To be honest I wasn’t even sure that the book would be complete by then,but even before I had completed the first draft of the novel,I was informed by my publisher that Harrison Ford was keen to make a movie on this topic. That thrilled me and I picked up pace. I constantly stayed in touch with the production team for developing the script,” she added. Although the book released first in the US and Italy,Anand,who works with The Wall Street Journal and is based out of Mumbai,found it difficult to find a publisher in India.

The book captures the true story of an American couple’s struggle to help save their two children who have been diagnosed with a potentially life threatening condition,called Pompe disorder. Since medical research of the disorder is in nascent stages,there is still no permanent cure for it. Anand began writing the book in 2004 after taking “six months leave which got extended to nine months for the entire first draft.”

The book launch was followed by a discussion by Bruce Ross,Country Director,the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the difficulty faced in getting medicines to undergo clinical trials. “Over 90 per cent of drugs that are entered for clinical trials in US fail to get clearances from the FDA. This book illustrates the difficulties at every stage of getting a drug through to clinical trials in a simplistic fashion,” explained Ross. The launch ended with a screening of Extraordinary Measures,whose India release is still uncertain.

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