EXCLUSIVE
New Regency has optioned the rights to the book "Blood Feud," the true story of a whistleblower at Johnson & Johnson, TheWrap has learned.
Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who wrote "Tower Heist," are attached to adapt.
Kathleen Sharp, a journalist who has written for The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Fortune and other magazines, wrote the book "Blood Feud: The Man Who Blew the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever." She will be a consultant on the project.
"Blood Feud" is billed as a real-life thriller about the anti-anemia drug Procrit -- and the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical rep who helped sell it until he came to believe it was causing harm.
Also read: New Regency Taps Carla Hacken as President of Production
In the early 1990s, a salesman in Johnson & Johnson's new biotech division was fired from the pharmaceutical company after warning that the drug he had championed was dangerous. "Blood Feud" tells his story and delves into the power that the pharmaceutical industry wields.
The story also involves the real-life lawyer Jan Schlichtmann, the subject of the movie, "A Civil Action."
Paradigm made the deal on behalf of Lisa Erbach Vance at the Aaron Priest Agency.
