Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley's. It had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could "sell to everyone." Gadsden's dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth. Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness, and the markets for medication grow ever larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. When it comes to conditions like high cholesterol or low bone density, being "at risk" is sold as a disease. Selling Sickness reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt health-care systems all over the world. As more and more of ordinary life becomes medicalized, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsden's dream: "selling to everyone."

雷·莫尼汉(Ray Moynihan)是全球知名的关注人类健康的作家之一，他的许多著作刊载于《悉尼晨报》（Sydney Morning Herald）、《墨尔本年代》（Melbourne Age）、《澳大利亚财经评论》（Australian Financial Review）、《不列颠医学月刊》（British Medical Journal）、《柳叶刀》（Lancet）和《新英格兰医学杂志》（New England Journal of Medicine）。

阿兰·卡塞尔(Alan Cassels)是加拿大作家和关注医药政策的研究人员。