Billion Dollar Deals and How They Changed Your World

Episode 1

Health

In the late seventies, Henry Gadsden, the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company, told a business magazine that the industry had a problem. In treating disease, they were limiting their client base. But by reinventing illness, treating the well and making the taking of prescription drugs as everyday as chewing a stick of gum, they could medicate modern life itself. From ADHD in children to the way GPs diagnose depression in adults, we look at the deals that have transformed the way we talk about and treat mental health. But what has been their real legacy? Jacques Peretti investigates the deals struck between health professionals and pharmaceutical companies and questions whether Gadsden's dream to medicate modern life has finally been realised.