Cara McGoogan

Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal. It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politicians and, above all, the greed of some of the world's biggest drug companies. At its centre, are the people - many of them children - who trusted those who promised to heal them and paid an unforgivable price for that trust. In telling their story, and laying bare a cover-up maintained over four decades, Cara McGoogan has done them - and all of us - an essential service

Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the grave injustices suffered by victims but also underscores the vital importance of transparency and accountability in a world all too willing to hide uncomfortable truths. Her work serves as a beacon for those of us dedicated to uncovering facts in the service of justice and human rights

Eliot Higgins, author of We Are Bellingcat

A revelatory work of non-fiction . . . The Poison Line renders personal tragedy on a mass scale: it&rsquo;s a shuddering achievement

Factor VIII was supposed to be a miracle treatment for the clotting disorder haemophilia but instead became an agent of death . . . pharmaceutical companies, governments and medical bodies conspired to keep the global scandal under wraps, despite whistleblower evidence. A deeply shocking account of medical injustice

This is a vital account of the infected blood scandal and subsequent cover-up, which caused enormous harm to so many people. The truth must be told, no matter how hard it is, for the system to change

The motivation of the companies producing Factor VIII in the US was clear: profit . . . As McGoogan points out, the parallels with the present-day opioid crisis in the US are clear

A powerful read . . . grounded as it is in emotive stories and dramatic language, while covering the more expansive international contexts in which medical decision-making takes place

Both a riveting thriller and a devastating investigation that is all the more infuriating and gripping because everything in its pages happened to innocent children and their families, in corporations' careless quest for profits. Once you plunge into this story, you will be holding onto your seat and turning the pages to see what terrible fate will befall young hemophiliacs who were kept in the dark for actual years about the fatal virus lurking in their medical treatments, and whether the doctors who violated their oath to protect their patients and the pharmaceutical companies who lied about their contaminated blood will finally get just punishment

Carol Leonnig, author of Zero Fail and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner

Cara McGoogan&rsquo;s The Poison Line is a brilliant act of investigative cartography, tracking the virus-ridden blood packs from their source (a prison in Louisiana) to patients in the US, the UK and beyond

This is an absolutely invaluable work of investigation, a book that terrifies and enrages, and a ferociously brave model of truth-telling

This deeply moving account of the infected blood scandal is a must read. Though devastating, the humanity and courage of the patients and campaigners shines through on every page. I loved this book

Cara McGoogan is an indefatigable detective and a born storyteller

Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, staff writer at The New Yorker

The distressing details are laid out in forensic and heart-wrenching detail . . . McGoogan documents the near-incomprehensible scale of lies and deception that define this scandal &ndash; most egregiously the cover-up by doctors, pharmaceutical companies and governments who went on allowing infectious products to be used while aware they were potentially deadly

A hugely impressive work of reportage, The Poison Line is a gripping and moving account of a shocking true story. Cara McGoogan&rsquo;s meticulous research and skilful writing are made all the more powerful by her deep compassion for the victims of this appalling and maddening tragedy

Ben Hinshaw, author of Exactly What You Mean

A riveting story of pharmaceutical and government malfeasance and cover up that left a trail of death and misery in its wake. Cara McGoogan's in-depth reporting and seamless writing makes The Poison Line the definitive account of one of modern medicine's most chilling scandals

Gerald Posner, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

I&rsquo;ll never be the same. No one who reads it will

Tom Mull, lawyer at Mull & Mull who fought Alpha, Armour, Baxter and Bayer for a decade

An incredibly powerful and important piece of reporting filled with so much anger and sadness from the first to last page

Heather Darwent, author of The Things We Do To Our Friends

A fluidly written, deeply reported and ambitious exposé . . . The author displays an eye for the poignant detail

Tells the full story of the infected blood scandal over more than 40 years

My first introduction to Cara McGoogan's work was her expertly researched and presented Bed of Lies, not only a masterclass in compelling storytelling in audio but also on holding power to account. Her journalistic instinct to illuminate corruption and institutional abuse, partnered with her delicate and nuanced style, makes her work unmissable

Alice Levine, TV and radio presenter, and host of the Wondery podcast British Scandal

Cara McGoogan is a dogged reporter whose investigation is a timely one. I can't wait to read her book

Joshua Hunt, author of University of Nike

McGoogan tenaciously tells the appalling story of this scandal and the lengths to which Big Pharma and governments went to cover it up

Life and Death in the Infected Blood Scandal

The shocking true story of how a miracle cure became a deadly poison, and the lengths that big pharma and government took to cover it up, for readers of Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain and John Carreyrou's Bad Blood 
 
'Essential reading' Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist 
 
When it was first put on the market in the late 1960s, Factor VIII was sold as a medical miracle: a revolutionary treatment that freed people with haemophilia to reclaim their lives, no longer in fear that a bleed might prove fatal. But as the cure was rolled out wholesale in the 1970s and 80s, haemophiliacs began to contract hepatitis and AIDS in terrifying numbers. Questions began to be asked. Rumours circulated in the press. How safe was Factor VIII? 
 
Award-winning investigative journalist and host of the Bed of Lies podcast Cara McGoogan traces the line of infection back to the pharmaceutical companies - Alpha, Armour, Baxter and Bayer - who made Factor VIII by pooling thousands of donors' paid-for plasma and selling it for billions of dollars. The miracle treatment was infected with HIV, and it was being injected straight into the arms of people with haemophilia around the world. Before long, Factor VIII was killing those it promised to protect. 
 
In this David and Goliath story, we follow the survivors-turned-campaigners, the small-town lawyers and the fearless journalists who took on some of the most powerful interests in the world - from medical institutions to governments and big business - to uncover what really happened in the infected blood scandal, the worst treatment disaster in NHS history. From 'an indefatigable detective and born storyteller' (Steve Coll), The Poison Line brings the full truth into the light in all its shocking and riveting detail. 
 
'An important and mostly unknown story of pharmaceutical malfeasance and greed with devastating and lethal consequences' Gerald Posner, author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

Cara McGoogan

Praise for The Poison Line

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

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Praise for The Poison Line

Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal. It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal. It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal. It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

Beautifully written, as vivid as it is light-fingered, this is also a devastating piece of reportage. Books are routinely described as extraordinary, but this one really is

In The Poison Line, Cara McGoogan masterfully unveils the depths of a scandal with precision and clarity. Through meticulous investigation and compelling storytelling, McGoogan not only brings to light the gr ...

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...

**Told with page-turning pace, a forensic grasp of detail and deep human compassion, The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal.** It turns on the hubris of doctors, the folly of politician ...