Library:Pain Killer
| Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic | |
|---|---|
| Author | Barry Meier |
| First published | 2003 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Health & Medicine Business, Finance & Scams |
| Tactics | Fraud or Scam Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic is a 2003 book by Barry Meier.
Summary
Barry Meier, a reporter for The New York Times, was one of the first journalists to investigate Purdue Pharma's marketing of OxyContin. The first edition appeared in 2003, years before the opioid crisis was widely recognized. An expanded edition was published in 2018.
Key points
- Early warning. Meier documented misuse of OxyContin and Purdue's aggressive promotion when the company still had wide support.
- Criminal case. In 2007, Purdue's parent company and three executives pleaded guilty to federal charges of misbranding OxyContin by misrepresenting its addiction risk, paying more than $600 million.
- Accountability. The updated edition examines how regulators and prosecutors failed to stop the crisis.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The book is an early and well-documented account of how false claims about addiction risk were sold to doctors.