Katherine Eban's journey into the world of generic drugs began with a simple phone call from Joe Graedon, host of NPR's The People's Pharmacy. Patients were reporting serious problems with their generic medications - drugs that were supposed to be equivalent to brand-name versions but somehow weren't working right. Some patients who had been stable on brand-name medications for years suddenly relapsed when switched to generics. Others experienced devastating side effects. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintained everything was fine, but the mounting evidence suggested otherwise.

This mystery launched Eban on a decade-long investigation that took her across four continents, deep into pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, and face-to-face with whistleblowers who risked everything to expose the truth. In China, government officials followed her and hacked her phone. In Mexico, a source passed her stacks of internal documents in a bar. In India, she uncovered widespread fraud in drug testing and manufacturing.

The reality she discovered was sobering. While generic drugs have made life-saving medications affordable for millions worldwide, the push for ever-lower prices has created dangerous compromises in quality. Many generic drugs are manufactured in facilities that cut corners, falsify data, and deceive regulators. The book's findings are particularly relevant because generic drugs now make up 90% of America's drug supply. Yet as Eban discovered, current regulatory systems aren't equipped to ensure consistent quality across this vast global manufacturing network. Her work exposes not just individual bad actors, but systemic problems in how generic drugs are made, tested, and regulated.

Join us, as we take an unprecedented look behind the scenes of an industry that affects nearly everyone who takes medication.