Evolve, Part 1: Unintended Consequences

Evolve, Part 1: Unintended Consequences opens with the FDA rejecting a genetic therapy that cures breast cancer. There is public outrage against the drug because the drug is seen as being available only to the wealthy and as being capable of genetic warfare against minorities and the poor. The public outcry is stoked by politicians that see the approval or rejection of the drug by the FDA as a mechanism through which to reshape the nation’s health care laws and increase their own political power. The company is compelled to strike a deal with ambitious political figures – Senator Sheila Beal and FDA Commissioner Harriett McGrady – in an attempt to keep the drug moving through the approval process. Commissioner McGrady, guided by Senator Beal, takes an increasingly activist role in the daily operations of the company. The drug’s creators, Ethan and Myrada Fisher, are marginalized by McGrady’s takeover of the drug development laboratory. First, Ethan Fisher cracks under the pressure of having to bow to McGrady’s authority. He leaves his wife, leaves the company, and leaves everything that he has ever known to be free of the oppression. Myrada Fisher struggles under the iron fist of McGrady to get the breast cancer drug approved for use. Finally, under threat of arrest if she should leave, Myrada flees the company. Does she reunite with her husband? Where is her husband, and what strange, advanced new research is he working on? Do the politicians succeed in forcing the drug through the regulatory process, appeasing the public, and getting reelected? Evolve, Part 1: Unintended Consequences pulls readers deep into the lives of scientists, CEOs, and politicians and answers these questions.

Evolve presents the reader with reality writ larger-than-life. The present day struggle between breast cancer victims and the FDA over the fate of the drug Avastin; the ubiquitous issue of doping in professional sports; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare); and the popular economic issue of the “bailout” (TARP plus the ARRA), are all mirrored in Evolve as fictionalized, dramatized issues of debate and conflict. In Evolve, politicians meddle with the economy; regulation is used to “protect” people from themselves; and politics is shown to be a corrupt business, not a noble endeavor. Readers will come to see slivers of each of the novel’s characters in the people in their own lives. Human evolution, achievement, and the value of freedom are the novel’s core themes. Evolve is Jurassic Park meets Atlas Shrugged with a timely and timeless narrative.