How OxyContin Was Sold to the Masses

How OxyContin Was Sold to the Masses

When OxyContin came on the market, in 1995, physicians were understandably wary of the addictive potential of a powerful new opioid. As Patrick Radden Keefe reports, the manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, aggressively marketed OxyContin to physicians, claiming that the drug’s delayed-release mechanism could limit the risk of addiction. Instead, OxyContin led to many new addictions, and many addicted patients eventually sought street drugs like heroin. Steven May started at Purdue Pharma as a sales rep in 1999, and years later went on to allege fraud against Purdue as a participant in a whistle-blower lawsuit (which was dismissed on procedural grounds). May tells Keefe that he was trained to market the drug as one “to start with and to stay with,” despite seeing early on its addictive potential.

Purdue Pharma is a privately held company controlled by members of the Sackler family, who have a net worth of thirteen billion dollars. The Sacklers have donated handsomely to cancer research, medical schools, art museums, and universities. But Keefe tells David Remnick that the Sacklers have donated “nothing for the opioid crisis. Nothing for addiction treatment. If there is any sense in that family that they bear any moral culpability for where we are today, they’re not acting on it.”

New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you. We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better. Take the survey here.

Avsnitt(1021)

Jamaica Kincaid on “Putting Myself Together”

Jamaica Kincaid on “Putting Myself Together”

Jamaica Kincaid began writing for The New Yorker in 1974, reporting about life in the magazine’s home city. She was a young immigrant from Antigua, then a British colony; she had been sent to New York...

5 Aug 202525min

John Brennan, Former C.I.A. Director, on Being Targeted by Trump

John Brennan, Former C.I.A. Director, on Being Targeted by Trump

In Donald Trump’s first term, he was furious that people were investigating his connections to Russia—“Russia, Russia, Russia,” he complained. Now, as Trump fulfills a campaign promise of retribution,...

1 Aug 202526min

Dexter Filkins on Drones and the Future of Warfare

Dexter Filkins on Drones and the Future of Warfare

Since the end of the Cold War, most Americans have taken U.S. military supremacy for granted. We can no longer afford to do so, according to reporting by the staff writer Dexter Filkins. China has dev...

29 Juli 202521min

Mayor Karen Bass on Marines in Los Angeles

Mayor Karen Bass on Marines in Los Angeles

The city of Los Angeles has declared itself a sanctuary city, where local authorities do not share information with federal immigration enforcement. But L.A.—where nearly forty per cent of residents a...

25 Juli 202529min

Director Ari Aster Explains His COVID-Era Western “Eddington”

Director Ari Aster Explains His COVID-Era Western “Eddington”

“I’m personally desperate for art that at least attempts to grapple with whatever the hell is going on right now,” the writer-director Ari Aster tells Adam Howard, a senior producer of the Radio Hour....

22 Juli 202525min

Michael Wolff on MAGA’s Revolt Over Jeffrey Epstein

Michael Wolff on MAGA’s Revolt Over Jeffrey Epstein

The sense that the White House is covering something up about Jeffrey Epstein has led to backlash from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Even after the financier was convicted for hiring an unde...

18 Juli 202526min

Carrie Brownstein on Cat Power. Plus, “Materialists,” “Too Much,” and the Modern Rom-Com.

Carrie Brownstein on Cat Power. Plus, “Materialists,” “Too Much,” and the Modern Rom-Com.

For The New Yorker’s series Takes, Carrie Brownstein—the co-creator of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia”—writes about an iconic rock-and-roll image. In the summer of 2003, the musician Chan Marshall, be...

15 Juli 20251h

Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy. Plus, Susan B. Glasser on Why “We Are the Boiled Frog.”

Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy. Plus, Susan B. Glasser on Why “We Are the Boiled Frog.”

In conservative economics, cuts to social services are often seen as necessary to shrink the expanding deficit. Donald Trump’s budget bill is something altogether different: it cuts Medicaid while sla...

11 Juli 202538min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

aftonbladet-krim
svenska-fall
p3-krim
rss-krimstad
blenda-2
flashback-forever
politiken
rss-sanning-konsekvens
aftonbladet-daily
rss-vad-fan-hande
motiv
grans
rss-krimreportrarna
spar
svd-ledarredaktionen
dagens-eko
rss-frandfors-horna
rss-flodet
olyckan-inifran
rss-klubbland-en-podd-mest-om-frolunda