Now a Netflix Series
"The book that started it all...Barry Meier is a heroic reporter and Pain Killer is a muckraking classic." Patrick Radden Keefe, Empire of Pain.
The landmark book that first chronicled the saga of OxyContin and how its reckless promotion by a company owned by one of America's wealthiest families -- the Sacklers -- unleashed the greatest public health crisis of the 21st century, the opioid epidemic.
In a new paperback edition tied to the release of the Netflix dramatic series, Painkiller, Barry Meier brings the saga of OxyContin and the Sackler family full circle. It contains stunning new revelations about what Purdue Pharma, the Sackler's company, knew about the abuse of OxyContin even while hailing it as a "wonder drug" that was safer than other opioids. Meier also details how government officials charged with protecting the public failed to seize the chance to alter the trajectory of a crisis that is devastating thousands of lives.