BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA, February 10, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — In September 2024, Patrick Girondi, Wall Street Journal bestselling author and biotech veteran will release “Healthcare Criminals: The Destruction of Bluebird Bio and Affordable Gene Therapy.”

Girondi’s gripping book tells a true American tale which spans 30 years. The salvation of his son was sabotaged by morally-bankrupt vultures in the pharmaceutical industry, banking industry and venture capitalists.

The economic cost and damage to patients and the US healthcare system, dwarves the Oxycontin, Vioxx, Paxil and EpiPen crimes combined.

When Rocco was diagnosed in 1993, Mr. Girondi, with the support of friends, family members, doctors and researchers formed Errant Gene Therapeutics (EGT), a small pharmaceutical company. You might want to call them “Small Pharma” as opposed to the top-heavy drug outfits today cynically known as “Big Pharma.”

The exact same gene therapy which will cure Thalassemia will also cure the more widespread Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), both hemoglobin diseases.

Today, EGT is San Rocco Therapeutics (SRT). Many years ahead of big pharma, SRT is the first company in the world to safely treat Thalassemia patients with gene replacement therapy and the first to produce a commercial batch of gene therapy for Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia.

In 2010, Third Rock Ventures paid $35 million for Bluebird Bio, which owned a faulty gene therapy to cure SCD and Thalassemia. After discovering the bad investment, Bluebird Bio CEO and Third Rock Ventures founder, Nick Leschly, pilfered SRT’s Intellectual Property while lying to investors. The “BLUE” stock price initiated at $17 and skyrocketed to $230. At that point of the crime, Leschly (and cronies) sold their shares to the unwitting, escaping with billions of dollars. The Bluebird Bio price is now $2.00. Leschly’s income in 2018 alone was $24 million.

Eventually, Girondi discovered the crime. Devastated by the unmitigated audacity by doctors whom he had been communicating and collaborating with for years to cure his son and others, Girondi sought justice in the US court system, where Big Pharma wears the little guys out and then crushes them.

SRT succeeded in reaching an out-of-court settlement in 2020; however, Bluebird, mired in their hubris, continues to not abide by the agreement. SRT has now filed charges for IP theft in Delaware (1:21-cv-01478-RGA) and RICO charges in Massachusetts (1:23-cv-10919).

Thus far, court documents confirm the involvement of a cast of executives, managers, insiders, and board members at Agios Pharma including its founder, Craig B. Thompson, and members of Bluebird Bio, Celgene and Juno.

SRT will soon be back in clinical trials and will charge $700,000 per patient. Bluebird Bio’s product was approved, then expelled from Europe in 2021 when it demanded $1.8 million per patient. In the USA, Bluebird was approved at $3.1 million per patient in December of 2023 for its Sickle Cell Disease therapy.

Girondi gives the reader an intimate and never-before-seen back-stage glimpse into the realities of hospitals, nonprofits, researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and what it takes to fight them in the US legal system. He also makes note of the family connection akin to the street mafias: like father like son. To wit, Nick Leschly’s father, Jan Leschly was the CEO of SmithKline Beecham from 1994-2000 when their anti-depressant drug, caused the suicides of thousands of children. In 2012, the Department of Justice handed down a $3 billion company fine for these deeds. The $3 billion was just the cost of doing business; their business in this particular drug crime, profited $12 billion. Not one individual was prosecuted.

“Characters in this book make Martin Shkreli look like a model citizen,” Girondi says.

Girondi’s memoir book “Flight of the Rondone: High School Dropout VS Big Pharma – The Fight to Save My Son’s Life” is a Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller from 2022. “Rondone” is also available in Italian. In February, 2023, “New City: A Story about Race-Baiting and Hope on the South Side of Chicago” was published. In October, 2023, “Faded Genes: Searching for a Cure and Finding Home in Altamura, Italy,” was released. Girondi is working with producers P.G. Cuschieri and Craig Cohen on a “Faded Genes” movie deal. In November 2023, “Blind Faith” was released. In January, “Chivalry” was released.

All of Girondi’s books are published by Skyhorse Publishing and distributed by Simon and Schuster.

The cover art and original paintings inside “Healthcare Criminals” will be done by renowned artist, Megan Euker.

Patrick Girondi, originally from the South Side of Chicago, is an Italian and American singer-songwriter, and founder of San Rocco Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on bringing a safe and accessible cure to Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia patients.

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