Our generation are the first human beings who can actually be cured of our diseases; our forefathers could, at best, be relieved of their symptoms, nothing more. It all began with the development of penicillin in 1939, and since then we’ve come, with amazing speed, to the mapping of the human genome, and all the wonderful possibilities that it now opens up for us. The biblical lifespan of “three score years and ten” is now a thing of the past; our children will possibly live twice as long as that. And for all of this, we have to thank the global pharma industry.