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STRONG MEDICINE, based on Arthur
Hailey's runaway bestseller, is the story of two women, Celia
Grey (Pamela Sue Martin) and her roommate Jessica (Annette
O'Toole) who set out on two separate paths in their quest
for personal fulfillment.
Celia, young, gutsy and confident, challenges
the corporate world when she pursues her dream of entering
the pharmaceutical industry--a private industry where decisions
affect not just million-dollar-profits, but the health and
safety of thousands.
At a time when the executive suite was
closed to women, Celia manages to land her first job as a
lab technician at Felding-Roth, one of the nation's leading
pharmaceutical companies. Soon tiring of washing beakers and
flasks, Celia gathers her courage and approaches Sam Hawthorne
(Dick Van Dyke) the head of sales, and asks for a chance to
prove herself. Sam, impressed by her guts, decides to give
her a break, making her the company's first sales woman.
Jessica, on the other hand, is working
her way up to a marriage license and a house in the country
filled with kids. She can't understand why any woman would
want a career when you could have a man support you.
Jessica succeeds in landing her man, but
her traditional dream of marriage and motherhood are not quite
what she expected. Her husband Bill (Michael Thoma) has trouble
keeping a job and her dreams of a nice house will have to
wait.
Celia's quest seems the more difficult.
Her hard work and honesty win the respect of the doctors she
calls on but there are those at Felding- Roth who do not take
kindly to her methods. One of those people is scientist Vince
Lord (Sam Neill) whose ambition and greed more often than
not get in the way of doing the right thing.
On one of her sales calls, Celia meets
Dr. Andrew Jordan (Patrick Duffy) who is despondent over one
of his patients who is dying of infectious hepatitis. As
a last hope, Celia suggest an experimental drug that Felding-
Roth is testing which has not yet been approved by the FDA.
The drastic measure works.
When the news hits the local papers, Celia
is brought to the attention of Felding-Roth's president Eli
Camperdown (Douglas Fairbanks) who congratulates her and invites
her to sit in on a board meeting.
A new drug is being considered. Vince
Lord wants to start testing immediately and pushes to try
the new sedative on a test group of pregnant women. Celia
vetoes the idea and is hailed a hero when reports surface
that THALIDOMIDE has caused widespread deformities in babies
in Europe. Vince is furious with Celia and sets out to destroy
her. The experience has also brought Andrew and Celia closer
together and it isn't long before they fall in love and marry.
Although Andrew professes to support his
wife's career, Celia soon discovers that her liberated husband
would really prefer her home waiting for him after a long
day at the hospital. A rift begins to form in their marriage.
Jessica is also having trouble at home.
Her husband Bill has been offered the chance to go to Washington
and work in the Kennedy administration. But being left home
with the kids all day, Jessica begins to feel restless and
bored. She turns to drinking to ease her emptiness.
Meanwhile, Celia is asked to go to London
to check out the feasibility of a British operation. There
she meets Dr. Martin Taylor, a young researcher who is working
on a cure for Alzheimers. Celia finds herself more and more
attracted to Taylor and the feeling is clearly reciprocated.
When Jessica, suspicious of Bill's frequent
late nights at the office, finds out that he is having an
affair with his secretary, she takes the kids and goes to
stay with Celia. While separated from Bill she meets a young
man who is involved in the peace movement. He invites her
and the children to come live with him in a commune.
When Bill finds out, he follows her and
kidnaps the children one night while Jessica is sleeping.
Jessica goes after them and she and Bill face the decision
of whether they want to give their marriage another try.
The British Institute opens and Lord,
threatened by its possible success, blackmails someone at
the Food and Drug Administration to get a new drug on the
market. The drug seems to be doing well and Lord begins to
see himself as invincible. His victory is short lived, however.
Reports that the drug may be linked to 15 deaths soon surface
and Vince, hoping the crisis will pass, withholds the information
from the company.
When Felding-Roth is brought before a
Senate hearing it's up to Celia to prove the company's innocence
before a publicity seeking Senator tries to prove otherwise.
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