'Painkiller' fact and fiction: What the Netflix show got right about the opioid crisis, OxyContin and the Sacklers (2023)

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Arthur Sackler practiced a career in psychiatry, but it is unclear whether he performed lobotomies on a regular basis.

In "Painkiller," viewers watch Arthur Sackler (Clark Gregg) perform a lobotomy on a patient. This brutal practice is popularpsychiatric treatmentThe time is the mid-20th century, but it is unclear whether Arthur himself underwent regular lobotomies.

existsPatrick Radden Keefe's seminal New Yorker article(The Netflix show highlights this.) Keefe reports that the three Sackler brothers—Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond—worked together as doctors at the Creedmore Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York for a while and founded the Center for Psychobiological Research at the Creedmore Institute . They were all interested in seeking "drug alternatives" to then well-known psychiatric treatments such as electroshock therapy and apparent lobotomy. Keefe wrote in his bookEmpire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler DynastyArthur "hated" electroshock therapy and the three brothers were uneasy about lobotomies.

However, showrunner Peter Berg defended the show's version of events in an interview.Jack Holmes hos Esquire Magazine.

Berg told Esquire that Arthur had a lobotomy. As Holmes reports, the doctor was more interested in "repeat customers" than the "one-and-done" nature of lobotomy patients and eventually began researching psychiatric drugs—as the show portrayed them.

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Yes, Purdue Pharma gave away OxyContin plush toys as part of its marketing plan.

OxyContin plush toys feature prominently in the "painkiller" category, and the cheerful stuffed animals are often used to contrast the addiction and death the eponymous drug has inflicted on humans.

as2016 Statistics News Coverage, the plush toy is part of Purdue Pharmaceuticals' marketing strategy to promote OxyContin. The company also gave away other "giveaway" items, including fishing hats and coffee mugs branded with OxyContin's slogan "The one to start with," which becomes "The one to start with" when hot liquid is poured into it. ".

Stat also noted that Purdue and other drugmakers voluntarily agreed to stop advertising this type of promotional giveaway after criticism of their marketing tactics in 2003.Rapport fra US Government Accountability Office. february 2018,Purdue UniversityAnnounced it would stop marketing opioids to doctors.

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Yes, OxyContin is chemically related to heroin.

Both heroin and OxyContin are part of a class of drugs calledopioids.

according to the DEAOxycodone, the generic name for the painkiller, is derived from the poppy plant and has "similar effects" to heroin, fentanyl and opium.

INNational Drug Intelligence Center rapportNoting in 2001 that both heroin and OxyContin "appeal to the same group of addicts," OxyContin is sometimes called "the poor man's heroin."

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After the FDA approved OxyContin, Curtis Wright left the FDA and later got a job at Purdue University.

In "Painkiller," Purdue Pharma and Richard Sackler (played by Matthew Broderick) take an interest in Wright after he oversees OxyContin's FDA application. Wright was initially wary of the drug, but eventually backed down, saying the drug's "delayed absorption that OxyContin tablets provide is thought to reduce the drug's potential for abuse."

OxyContin was reportedly only approved in December 1995.Go to the FDA website.

According to 2006Ministry of Justice memoWright proposed indicting several key Purdue Pharma executives and advised Purdue on how to speed up OxyContin's approval during his tenure at the FDA. A year after Wright left the FDA, he found a job at Purdue Pharma that paid "at least $379,000," according to the DOJ.

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The OxyContin cheerleaders seen at the Purdue gala are likely to be a dramatic part of the story.

although it is obviousOxyContin brings in millions for Purdue Pharma, what happened at company parties and sales meetings has not been widely discussed.

Of course, it's possible that Purdue hired "OxyContin cheerleaders" for its big event, but it seems more likely that the dancers portrayed in the show are metaphors for the company's reported greed and excessive spending.

It could also be a reference to comments made by former Senator Claire McCaskill following the release of the report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2018.RapportAbout how America's largest opioid manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, fund patient groups and professional medical corporations.

"I think these groups cheerleader ... Cheerleading is way too frequent for opioids," McCaskill reportedly said when he announced the findings.protector.

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One of Howard Udall's secretaries was addicted to OxyContin.

Udell, who died in 2013, is said to have served as general counsel for Purdue Pharma for more than three decades.abc news.

keep in his bookto reportUdell's secretary of more than 20 years (mentioned in Keefe's book under the pseudonym Martha West) said in a lawsuit that she "became addicted to OxyContin" while working at Purdue. According to Keefe's book, before West became addicted, Udall asked her to conduct online research about her drug addiction in 1999 to form an internal memo and referred her to a pain specialist, who wrote a prescription for back pain. The OxyContin.

According to Keefe, West, a recovering alcoholic who was deposed in a 2004 lawsuit against Purdue, said in her testimony that her OxyContin addiction caused her to try other drugs and start drinking again. After 21 years at Purdue, she was fired for "poor job performance."

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Yes, Rudy Giuliani helped broker a deal between the US government and Purdue Pharmaceuticals.

An important part of "Painkiller" involves the fictional lawyer Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba), who worked for the US attorney's office in the mid-2000s to try to bring a case against Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Despite their best efforts, the office eventually reached a settlement with Purdue, pleading guilty to OxyContin's deceptive marketing and misbranding allegations.

The company was able to reach this agreement in part because of the efforts of the attorneys they hired --Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani initially tried to "undermine the case," Keefe reported. Later, however, Giuliani and other Purdue lawyers went over Attorney General John Brownlee's head and complained to then-Deputy Attorney James Comey,protectorreported.

According to the Guardian, Giuliani eventually helped broker a deal with Brownlee that prevented Purdue from facing further prosecution over OxyContin and kept the company's top executives who pleaded guilty in their personal capacity — Yu Del, former medical director Dr. Paul D. Goldheim, and then - President Michael Friedman - served time in prison. Instead, Udell, Goldenheim and Friedman paid a combined $34.5 million in fines, while Purdue was fined $640 million.

By getting Brownlee to agree to sue parent company Frederick Purdue instead of Purdue, Giuliani and his team were also able to block Purdue's future ban on doing business with the federal government, which administers Medicaid, Medicare, among other public health programs, according to the Guardian , and the Veterans Administration's health care system. This allows Purdue to continue selling OxyContin without restrictions,Despite pleading guilty.

In an earlier statement about painkillers emailed to Insider, a Purdue Pharma representative said:

"With our greatest sympathy and respect for those suffering as a result of the opioid crisis, our focus right now is on completing the bankruptcy so that much-needed funds can flow to deal with the crisis. Purdue Pharma will cease"

1. augustThe Supreme Court suspends the hearingPurdue Pharma is planning a bankruptcy settlement that would prevent members of the Sackler family from being held personally liable in opioid-related lawsuits.