Featured Authors

Bombay-born Geeta Anand is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and feature writer specializing in health and biotechnology at The Wall Street Journal. Anand came across the gripping story of John Crowley and his daring efforts to save his children’s lives from a debilitating and fatal disease in 2001. With two daughters of her own, Anand sympathized with John’s ongoing battle. Her articles in The Wall Street Journal sparked  The Today Show to feature John Crowley and his family.  In THE CURE  Anand tells the larger and inspiring story of a young father’s race against time to save the lives of his children. “Anand… has proven that truth can be far stranger than fiction in this story of a marriage and family that survived despite incredible odds,” says Abbey Meyeres, President of the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

John and Aileen Crowley appeared to have it all. John had just received a Harvard Business School degree and they were living with their three wonderful children in a brand new house. Then reality hit. In 1998, their two youngest children were diagnosed with Pompe disease, a condition that causes a gradual loss of muscle function to the point where one loses the ability to walk, eat, or even breathe. It was so rare that no medicine had yet been developed to treat it. The Crowleys were told there was nothing they could do and their children, fifteen-month-old Megan and five-moth-old Patrick, who were both given only months to live.

John Crowley refused to give up so easily. Determined against insuperable odds to find a cure, Crowley mortgaged his home to the hilt and raised money to start a biotechnology  Novazyme Pharmaceuticals. Two and a half years later, he sold it to Genzyme for a record sum; John was also hired by Genzyme. Yet when it came time to test a treatement, the Crowley children did not qualify for the clinical trials. After many setbacks, the Crowley’s situation soon changed. On Christmas Eve of 2002, they received a Christmas miracle: the needed enzyme replacement therapy they’d been pursuing for their children had been granted by a hospital in New Jersey. After twelve weeks of undergoing treatment, Megan showed significant improvement, gaining strength, and Patrick also showed progress, although less noticeably.

Crowley continues to work indefatigably to help not only his own children, but others as well.  THE CURE takes us from the laboratories where new drugs are developed and tested, to the boardroom, where life and death decisions are made, and to the heart of a family’s whose courage, good humor and perserverance is truly inspiring.

--Ellen Assimos