Painkiller on Netflix

[Anonymous]

Anyone watching it? I hadn't been following the oxycotin news stories, so I hadn't realized how it started.

The part about the FDA was disheartening. I can understand why now people are don't trust the FDA over anything.

I haven't finished watching it, yet (on episode 4), but the failure of the FDA is just startling.

What happened to the FDA person who finally approved it? In the series, it shows that the guy who finally approved it ultimately went to work for Purdue pharma. After 11 months of him not approving oxycotin, he went into a closed door session in a hotel for a couple of days with Purdue pharma, and then finally, he approved it.

I don't mind the spoiler alert. Does anyone know what happened behind those closed doors to make him finally approve it?

[Anonymous]

While I don't have the answer to your question (and I'm just starting to watch), it's very disheartening over the past few years to learn just how much the FDA is just a farm team for Big Pharma.

[Anonymous]

It's certainly a good argument for increasing FDA funding and giving it more teeth. Corporations clearly can't be trusted to act in the best interests of the public, and approval of something like Oxycontin shouldn't have ever hinged on just one person resisting the corrupting influence of a pharmaceutical company.

[Anonymous]

I was enjoying it until I realized it’s fictionalized. I don’t like these types of programs because it’s too murky about what’s real and what’s drama and it’s too easy to become misinformed.

[Anonymous]

Ask some people in terrible pain from terminal disease how they feel about oxycontin. And don’t believe media that blames a therapeutic drug for damage from unlawful. Chinese fentanyl.

[Anonymous]

FDA Directors going back to 2009:

Stephen M. Hahn: Chief medical officer at the venture capital firm that launched Moderna.

Scott Gottlieb: Pfizer Board of Directors

Robert Califf (two stints as Director, including currently): so many ties to the pharmaceutical industry that Bernie Sanders wouldn't vote for him to be the FDA Director

Margaret Hamburg: Board of Directors, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Andrew von Eschenbach: Director of Viamet Pharmaceuticals

Lester Crawford: only lasted two months before resigning after significant conflicts of interest came to light

But sure, give them more money and more "teeth".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask some people in terrible pain from terminal disease how they feel about oxycontin. And don’t believe media that blames a therapeutic drug for damage from unlawful. Chinese fentanyl.

? yea, anyone in pain would benefit from heroin. But, that doesn't mean it's a safe drug and should be prescribed the way it was. Are you a big pharma shill or something?

also, fentanyl is also made in the good ol' usa. It's not just imported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FDA Directors going back to 2009:

Stephen M. Hahn: Chief medical officer at the venture capital firm that launched Moderna.

Scott Gottlieb: Pfizer Board of Directors

Robert Califf (two stints as Director, including currently): so many ties to the pharmaceutical industry that Bernie Sanders wouldn't vote for him to be the FDA Director

Margaret Hamburg: Board of Directors, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Andrew von Eschenbach: Director of Viamet Pharmaceuticals

Lester Crawford: only lasted two months before resigning after significant conflicts of interest came to light

But sure, give them more money and more "teeth".

so, what's the solution?

As a PP stated, we can't trust big pharma to police themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was enjoying it until I realized it’s fictionalized. I don’t like these types of programs because it’s too murky about what’s real and what’s drama and it’s too easy to become misinformed.

I realize some of it is fictionalized, but which part was fictionalized to the point a viewer would become "misinformed"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's certainly a good argument for increasing FDA funding and giving it more teeth. Corporations clearly can't be trusted to act in the best interests of the public, and approval of something like Oxycontin shouldn't have ever hinged on just one person resisting the corrupting influence of a pharmaceutical company.

Agree but this wasn’t a documentary so do we even know that it’s truly like that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was enjoying it until I realized it’s fictionalized. I don’t like these types of programs because it’s too murky about what’s real and what’s drama and it’s too easy to become misinformed.

I realize some of it is fictionalized, but which part was fictionalized to the point a viewer would become "misinformed"?

It’s not clear which parts are accurate and which parts are dramatized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FDA Directors going back to 2009:

Stephen M. Hahn: Chief medical officer at the venture capital firm that launched Moderna.

Scott Gottlieb: Pfizer Board of Directors

Robert Califf (two stints as Director, including currently): so many ties to the pharmaceutical industry that Bernie Sanders wouldn't vote for him to be the FDA Director

Margaret Hamburg: Board of Directors, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Andrew von Eschenbach: Director of Viamet Pharmaceuticals

Lester Crawford: only lasted two months before resigning after significant conflicts of interest came to light

But sure, give them more money and more "teeth".

so, what's the solution?

As a PP stated, we can't trust big pharma to police themselves.

DP. Maybe prohibit FDA commissioners from running straight to Pharma as soon as they leave FDA. I'm sure they could still find someone to run the place -- I don't believe Kessler went into pharma after leaving as commissioner.

[Anonymous]

I didn't enjoy this show that much - I thought Dopesick was better. I already knew some about it all from reading Empire of Pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I don't have the answer to your question (and I'm just starting to watch), it's very disheartening over the past few years to learn just how much the FDA is just a farm team for Big Pharma.

This might shock you, but the FDA is nearly entirely funded by the pharma industry, not through govt money. How do you think the FDA stays open when the govt shuts down? They run primarily on user fees...i.e..pharma money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FDA Directors going back to 2009:

Stephen M. Hahn: Chief medical officer at the venture capital firm that launched Moderna.

Scott Gottlieb: Pfizer Board of Directors

Robert Califf (two stints as Director, including currently): so many ties to the pharmaceutical industry that Bernie Sanders wouldn't vote for him to be the FDA Director

Margaret Hamburg: Board of Directors, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Andrew von Eschenbach: Director of Viamet Pharmaceuticals

Lester Crawford: only lasted two months before resigning after significant conflicts of interest came to light

But sure, give them more money and more "teeth".

so, what's the solution?

As a PP stated, we can't trust big pharma to police themselves.

DP. Maybe prohibit FDA commissioners from running straight to Pharma as soon as they leave FDA. I'm sure they could still find someone to run the place -- I don't believe Kessler went into pharma after leaving as commissioner.

Go lookup Commissioner Hahn who was the leader of the FDA during the pandemic and who oversaw the approval of the covid vaccines. He immediately left to go work for the VC firm that basically provided the founding funds for Moderna. It's insane how low people have ethics requirements and cooling off periods, yet the commissioners like Hahn and Gottlieb can go work at FDA, approve a whole bunch of crap, and then immediately go work for the same companies they had oversight over.