Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America Author: Gerald Posner Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster ASIN: 1501151894

About This Book

Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as anti­biotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs, safety recalls affecting tens of millions of Americans, and soaring rates of addiction and overdose on pre­scription opioids have caused many to revile the industry. Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America looks at the heroes and villains of the trillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry. Among its characters are brilliant scientists, in-corruptible government regulators, and brave whistleblowers facing off against company exec­utives often blinded by greed.

Pharma uncovers the real story of the Sacklers, the family that became one of America’s wealthiest from the success of OxyContin, their blockbuster narcotic painkiller at the center of the opioid crisis. Relying on thousands of pages of government and corporate archives, dozens of hours of interviews with insiders, and previously classified FBI files, Gerald Posner exposes the secrets of the Sacklers’ rise to power under a byzantine web of interlocking companies with ever-changing names and hidden owners. The unexpected twists and turns of the Sackler family saga are told against the startling chronicle of a powerful industry that sits at the intersection of public health and profits.