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Here’s a rare treat. It’s one thing to read about Taxol, one of the most important breakthroughs in modern cancer treatment. It’s another thing to hear the story from someone directly involved in the effort to bring the drug from Pacific yew trees to cancer patients. Burt Rosen, former Director of Government Affairs at Bristol-Myers Squibb, recounts the scientific, political, and environmental battles behind Taxol’s path to market. In the annals of medical and political history, few episodes better illustrate the conflict between environmental conservation and medical necessity than the effort to bring Taxol to patients. Derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree—one of the slowest-growing trees in the world—Taxol emerged in the late 20th century as a promising new treatment for ovarian and other cancers. However, its path from the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest to the patients who desperately needed it required navigating an acute supply crisis, a sudden shift in clinical trial ethics, and an extraordinary legislative rescue mission within the halls of Congress.