Greener by the Day

Fresh out of university, Johnathon Wallace is finding it near impossible to land a good job as a journalist. On a losing streak, he settles for an entry level position as a copywriter for a fledgling pharmaceutical company called Green Country Medicine. The company?s flagship product, now in its final testing phase, is called Retrocare, and it?s Johnathon?s job to help brand this new medicine to market. It?s the new breakthrough in AIDS treatment, it does what the old standard AZT tried to do, but more effectively and less lethal. But when one of Johnathon?s newly assigned trial patients, Manuel Floras, rapidly succumbs, it becomes apparent that his deterioration was directly related to treatment. After asking some questions, and being quickly shut down by Helen, the marketing manager, Johnathon seeks the advice of an ex-trial engineer, Dr. Henry Placard. What he discovers is that Green Country has taken the AZT patent from the public domain and simply repackaged it for market. Any innovation they claim is minimal as the treatment yields the same results during their testing, and what?s more, Dr. Placard is terminated for suggesting that the company resist marketing to patients until real progress can be made. As he digs deeper, Johnathon finds himself compelled to risk his career to expose the facts to all the patients in the company?s trial program and the media. The result is a serious evaluation of the ethical climate of today?s pharmaceutical companies, as many subject breakthroughs for profit, leaving people as collateral damage.