A few weeks back, I was browsing X (formerly Twitter) and came across a thread by this handle @matrixmysteries which spoke about everyday stuff that we have been lied to about… The big one in that was about Big Pharma.
As part of this tweet, the top left infographic is the most depressing – just see the increase in some of these disorders. 🙁
Krishnan and I are huge fans of two TV series “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago PD”. The most disturbing trend that we noticed was, in Chicago Fire, the Paramedics would give the patient a shot of “Fentanyl” when they were in pain and in Chicago PD, drug busts were all about Fentanyl being a deadly drug…..We do understand that the same substance can be a poison and an elixir, but then making an Opioid easily available on prescription is something that we can’t wrap our head around.
Fentanyl is categorised as an Opioid Analgesic – in layman’s terms, it’s an addictive drug that helps relieve pain. 🙁
Then we saw the short series titled “Painkiller” on Netflix. Well… Purdue Pharma a company owned by the Sackler family seems to have feuled the Opioid crisis with their drug named “Oxycontin”. It was a highly addictive painkiller. Purdue Pharma began marketing OxyContin in 1996, and its sales skyrocketed due to aggressive marketing tactics. The web series shows how aggressive the marketing tactics were and how lucrative the incentives were !!
The Sackler family’s fortunes skyrocketed alongwith the sales of OxyContin. Just see the following blurb taken from this article – The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy.
The Painkiller web series brings home one painful truth – Big Pharma is focussed on making money, and not so much on keeping you healthy. Exactly the point being made by Matrix Mysteries – Profits Over Cure.
In some tiny silver lining – the settlement ruling ensures the Sacklers have no ownership of Purdue Pharma and they payout $7.4 Billion to help those affected by the Opioid crisis. The following blurbs are taken from the article – How Opioid Settlement Could Change Sackler Family Net Worth
So before you pop a pill for that headache… think 50 times. Are you making the Pharma company rich or getting cured ? Big Pharma is not about cures its about profits. Beware.
Do watch the web series … will help resolve some of the lingering doubts that one may have. Even the US FDA ends up being “bought”. 🙁
Here is an earlier post of mine on the same topic – Strong Medicine and Pill Web Series: Exposing Pharma Industry’s Malpractices