Podcasts · Great Business Stories
Sam Waksal: The Improbable Rise, Fall & Redemption
· 30 min
Episode Sam Waksal: The Improbable Rise, Fall & Redemption
2001 was Sam Waksal’s year.
Seven years after discovering Erbitux — the so-called wonder drug — everything seemed to be falling into place. The drug had made it onto the cover of Business Week, Waksal’s company ImClone’s stock was at record highs, and he was living like a celebrity. There were photographs of him with Mick Jagger, Lorraine Bracco, Matthew Modine. He was best friends with Martha Stewart, dated her daughter Alexis for years, and he’d just sold $111 million worth of shares.
To anyone watching, Waksal looked like the golden boy of biotech — a scientist-turned-successful entrepreneur. But within months, he’d be kicked out of his own company, under federal investigation, and eventually sent to prison — dragging others, most famously Martha Stewart, down with him.
And of course that moment didn’t come out of nowhere. It started years earlier, and to understand how he got there, we have to go back to the beginning.
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