***SPOILERS*** True story of the Bristol-Myers executive John Crowley and his wife Aileen's, Brendan Fraser & Keri Russell, attempt to get a life saving children's drug first perfected and then put on the market. That's in order to not only save their two young children Magan & Patrick, Meredith Droeger & Diego Velazquez, but thousands like them from the child killer muscular disease Pompe.
Told that both Megan & Patrick wouldn't live to see their 10th birthday because of them suffering from Pompe John works the internet day and night until he finds the one person, in his papers on the disease, who can save them. That lovable nut of a guy and eccentric Nebraskan Dr. Robert Stonehill, Harrison Ford. After making a number of failed attempts to reach Dr. Stonehill by phone and internet John decides to drive to his home in Nebraska. There John plans to tell Dr. Stonehill his tragic story and see what he can do to help.
It's only grudging that Dr. Stonehill goes along with the desperate John's request to help in finding a cure for Pompe after he promised to give him a $500,000.00 donation to his favorite cause and charity: The money is to build Dr. Stonehill a new and state of the art laboratory for him to his work in. Doc. Stonehill gets together, from all corners of the earth, a biotechnology dream team to accomplish what is considered to be the impossible a cure for Pompe. Driven to the point of exhaustion Dr. Stonehill works around the clock without even having any coffee breaks to discover the enzyme that would unclog the buildup of sugar proteins in the body, that in the end causes heart and muscle failure, that the deadly disease-Pompe-causes in young children.
What we see in the film is first what an off the wall wacko Dr. Stonehill is in his it's either my way or the highway attitude in cooperating with other biotechnology teams in finding the cure for Pompe. This has almost the entire project shelved by the venture capitalists who are paying big bucks, in the tens of millions, for his research. Things get so out of hand with Dr. Stonehill's antics that even John who's his biggest supporter breaks with him knowing that he's in fact, without realizing it, sabotaging the very project that he brought him all the way from Nebraska to conduct!
With success within sight by Dr. Stonehill finally coming to his senses, by going along with the program, John is hit with another shocker in not having his children being treated with the miracle drug or enzyme when its ready for use! With John's company marketing the drug it would be a conflict of interest if his children, who have only months to live, would be the first to be treated with it!
Despite all the pitfalls and setbacks that both John Crowley and Dr. Stonehill faced and overcame in the movie the drug, approved by the DEA, finally makes it to market. That makes it possible for both Magen and Patrick, in John getting himself fired from his job at Bristol-Myers, to be the very first to be given the drug that ends up saving their lives. It's Dr. Stonehill, now calling himself Uncle John, who first notices the drug doing its job. Thats when he together John & Aileen visits the two kids in the hospital and sees then having an hysterical fit! The drug, Dr. Stonehill excitedly tells the children's parents, was breaking down the sugar buildup in Magen and Patrick's bodies that was killing them! Thus giving them the sugar high that was a sign that they were being cured by it!
Told that both Megan & Patrick wouldn't live to see their 10th birthday because of them suffering from Pompe John works the internet day and night until he finds the one person, in his papers on the disease, who can save them. That lovable nut of a guy and eccentric Nebraskan Dr. Robert Stonehill, Harrison Ford. After making a number of failed attempts to reach Dr. Stonehill by phone and internet John decides to drive to his home in Nebraska. There John plans to tell Dr. Stonehill his tragic story and see what he can do to help.
It's only grudging that Dr. Stonehill goes along with the desperate John's request to help in finding a cure for Pompe after he promised to give him a $500,000.00 donation to his favorite cause and charity: The money is to build Dr. Stonehill a new and state of the art laboratory for him to his work in. Doc. Stonehill gets together, from all corners of the earth, a biotechnology dream team to accomplish what is considered to be the impossible a cure for Pompe. Driven to the point of exhaustion Dr. Stonehill works around the clock without even having any coffee breaks to discover the enzyme that would unclog the buildup of sugar proteins in the body, that in the end causes heart and muscle failure, that the deadly disease-Pompe-causes in young children.
What we see in the film is first what an off the wall wacko Dr. Stonehill is in his it's either my way or the highway attitude in cooperating with other biotechnology teams in finding the cure for Pompe. This has almost the entire project shelved by the venture capitalists who are paying big bucks, in the tens of millions, for his research. Things get so out of hand with Dr. Stonehill's antics that even John who's his biggest supporter breaks with him knowing that he's in fact, without realizing it, sabotaging the very project that he brought him all the way from Nebraska to conduct!
With success within sight by Dr. Stonehill finally coming to his senses, by going along with the program, John is hit with another shocker in not having his children being treated with the miracle drug or enzyme when its ready for use! With John's company marketing the drug it would be a conflict of interest if his children, who have only months to live, would be the first to be treated with it!
Despite all the pitfalls and setbacks that both John Crowley and Dr. Stonehill faced and overcame in the movie the drug, approved by the DEA, finally makes it to market. That makes it possible for both Magen and Patrick, in John getting himself fired from his job at Bristol-Myers, to be the very first to be given the drug that ends up saving their lives. It's Dr. Stonehill, now calling himself Uncle John, who first notices the drug doing its job. Thats when he together John & Aileen visits the two kids in the hospital and sees then having an hysterical fit! The drug, Dr. Stonehill excitedly tells the children's parents, was breaking down the sugar buildup in Magen and Patrick's bodies that was killing them! Thus giving them the sugar high that was a sign that they were being cured by it!