Strong Medicine by Arthur Hailey Read Free Book Online Page B

discovered they had
    each, in differing ways, achieved celebrity status.
    Like many important medical developments, the news about Andrew's
    successful use of Lotromycin took time to circulate but now, some six
    weeks after Mary Rowe's remarkable recovery, it had been picked up by the
    national press.
    Morristown's tiny Daily Record had carried the story first under a
    heading:
    Local Medic Uses Wonder Drug
    Patient's "Miracle" Recovery
    The Newark Star-Ledger, which clearly scanned the local papers in its
    bailiwick, repeated the item which, in turn, came to the attention of
    science writers at the New York Times and Time. When Andrew returned he
    discovered that urgent phone messages had been left for him to call both
    publications, which he did. Still more publicity resulted, with Time, the
    more romantically inclined, adding to its report the fact of Andrew and
    Celia's marriage.
    As well as all this, the New England Journal of Medicine informed Andrew
    that, subject to certain revisions, his article on
    45
     

Lotromycin would be p.~blished in due course. The suggested revisions were
    minor and Andrew agreed to them at once.
    "I don't mind admitting I'm consumed with envy," Dr. Noah Townsend
    observed when Andrew told him about the New England Journal. Then
    Andrew's senior partner added, "But I console myself with the luster it's
    already bringing to our practice."
    Later, Townsend's wife Hilda, attractive in her early fifties, confided
    to Andrew, "Noah won't tell you this, but he's so proud of you that
    nowadays he's thinking of you like a son-the son we'd both have liked but
    never had."
    Celia, while receiving less personal publicity, found her status at
    Felding-Roth changed in not-so-subtle ways.
    Previously she had been an anachronism, to some a source of curiosity and
    amusement-the firm's sole saleswoman who, despite an initial and
    unexpected accomplishment in Nebraska, still had to prove herself over
    the long term. Not any more. Her handling of Lotromycin, and the
    continuing publicity which delighted FeldingRoth, had put both the drug
    and Celia squarely on the road to success.
    Within the company her name was now well known to top executives,
    including Felding-Roth's president, Eli Camperdown, who sent for Celia
    a day after her return to work.
    Mr. Camperdown, a lanky, cadaverous industry veteran in his mid-sixties,
    who always dressed impeccably and was never seen without a red rose in
    his buttonhole, received Celia in his ornate office suite on the eleventh
    floor-executive country-of the Felding-Roth building in Boonton. He
    attended to the amenities first.
    "My congratulations on your marriage, Mrs. Jordan. I hope you'll be
    happy." He added with a smile, "I also trust that from now on your
    husband will prescribe nothing but Felding-Roth products."
    Celia thanked him and decided the remark about Andrew was merely
    facetious, so let it go without pointing up her husband's independence
    where drugs and medicine were concerned.
    "You have become something of a legend, young lady," the president
    continued. "Living proof that an outstanding woman, occasionally, can be
    every bit as good as a man."
    "I hope, sir." Celia said sweetly, "that someday you won't feel the need
    for that 'occasionally.' I believe you'll see many more women in this
    business, and some may be even better than the men."
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For a moment Camperdown seemed taken aback and frowned. Then, recovering
    his geniality, he said, "I suppose stranger things have happened. We'll
    see. We'll see."
    They continued talking, Camperdown asking questions of Celia about her
    merchandising experiences. He seemed impressed by her informed,
    straightforward answers. Then, pulling a watch from a vest pocket, the
    president glanced at it and announced, "I'm about to hold a meeting here,
    Mrs. Jordan. It concerns a new drug we intend to market soon after
    Lotromycin. Perhaps you'd care to stay. "
    When she agreed that she would, the president called