Think Like a Freak

by Steven D. Levitt

Although ulcer patients didn’t make out so well under the standard treatment, the medical community did just fine. Millions of patients required the constant service of gastroenterologists and surgeons, while pharmaceutical companies got rich: the antacids Tagamet and Zantac were the first true blockbuster drugs, taking in more than $1 billion a year. By 1994, the global ulcer market was worth more than $8 billion. In the past, some medical researcher might have suggested that ulcers and other stomach ailments, including cancer, had a different root cause—perhaps even bacterial. But the medical establishment was quick to point out the glaring flaw in this theory: How could bacteria possibly survive in the acidic cauldron of the stomach? And so the ulcer-treatment juggernaut rolled on. There wasn’t much of an incentive to find a cure—not, at least, by the people whose careers depended on the prevailing ulcer treatment. Fortunately the world is more diverse than that.