Netflix’s “Painkiller” tells the story of how one household constructed a enterprise that helped launch the opioid disaster, and the way they evaded actual penalties for a very long time even amid ongoing authorized struggles. The restricted collection, which premieres on Aug. 10, is predicated on Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2017 New Yorker article “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain” and Barry Meier’s e book “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” which each chronicle how Purdue Pharma — led by the Sackler household — obscured the reality about their product OxyContin.
Are the Characters in “Painkiller” Based on Real People?
“Painkiller” is a scripted collection, however it sticks carefully to real-life occasions because it traces the rise and fall of the Sackler household’s empire. Most of its principal characters are fictional, together with Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba), a lawyer from Virginia who, within the collection, performs a key function in investigating the Sacklers’ empire. Another one in every of its principal plotlines follows Glen Kryger, a fictional mechanic who will get hooked on opioids after an damage, and a 3rd facilities West Duchovny as a fictional Purdue Pharma salesperson named Shannon Shaeffer.
Each one in every of these characters, whereas not primarily based on actual individuals, is a composite of various real-life tales. “Edie represents the entrance line,” director Pete Berg instructed Netflix on July 11. “At that point when OxyContin was simply beginning to be a factor and regulation enforcement all around the nation was beginning to see deaths, crimes and tablet mills popping up, there was a gaggle of regulation enforcement who had been the primary wave to see the tragedy starting to unfold. They then needed to begin attempting to determine, ‘Well, what’s going on right here?'”
Some of the characters featured within the collection are very actual, although, corresponding to Purdue Pharma executives Richard Sackler (Matthew Broderick) and Mortimer Sackler (John Rothman). Meanwhile, Tyler Ritter performs Edie’s supervisor US Attorney John Brownlee, who actually did work to efficiently convict Purdue Pharma of misbranding OxyContin in 2007, a narrative that fashioned the premise of Hulu’s 2021 collection “Dopesick.”
The True Events That Inspired “Painkiller”
“Painkiller” traces the Sackler household’s story from the start, beginning with brothers Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler, who purchased an organization known as Purdue Frederick in 1952, per the New Yorker. Arthur shortly realized that there was actual cash to be made in advertising capsules to the general public, although, and one in every of his early successes was Valium, which grew to become a phenomenon when it was launched in 1963. Shortly after Arthur’s dying in 1987, Mortimer and Raymond took over the corporate, which was renamed Purdue Pharma in 1991.
By 1996, one in every of Purdue’s principal income sources, a tablet known as MS Contin that was supposed for dying most cancers sufferers, was failing to show vital income. That yr, although, Purdue developed and patented a model of MS Contin known as OxyContin. Per the Financial Times, Richard noticed potential within the product and determined to focus the corporate’s vitality on it, declaring that his advertising method would set off “a blizzard of prescriptions that may bury the competitors.”
Purdue branded OxyContin as a drug that might cease every kind of ache, from arthritis to again aches. They claimed it was efficient for 12 hours at a time, and in addition mentioned it was not addictive except sufferers already had addictive personalities, per the National Library of Medicine. Their advertising ways included flying docs to costly conferences and inspiring gross sales reps to kind shut bonds with docs, and their method was profitable, netting $3 billion by 2010, per the Los Angeles Times, and incomes them a complete of $10 billion general, per NPR.
It quickly grew to become obvious that OxyContin’s results wore off earlier than the 12-hour mark, although, and that it was much more addictive than marketed. Soon, many sufferers discovered themselves hooked on a drug their docs had instructed them was protected — and but Purdue continued to push the product, releasing larger dosages and persevering with to considerably downplay the drug’s addictive potential of their advertising efforts, as documented by the LA Times. OxyContin’s success impressed different corporations to start releasing comparable (and equally addictive) merchandise, and this unleashed an opioid epidemic that will declare a whole lot of hundreds of lives.
In 2007, the US Justice Department launched a felony investigation that culminated in Purdue’s three high executives pleading responsible to fraud for minimizing the hazards of OxyContin of their advertising ways. They had been in the end fined $635 million, per the LA Times. In 2022, the household agreed to pay $6 billion as a part of a lawsuit with a number of attorneys normal, per Reuters, although the settlement additionally sought to grant the household immunity from present or future civil lawsuits and the Sackler household has admitted no wrongdoing. However, the settlement was blocked by the Supreme Court on Aug. 10, per CNN.
Meanwhile, per the CDC, the opioid disaster price the US $1 trillion in 2017, and greater than 564,000 individuals have died from an overdose involving opioids between 1999 and 2020, in accordance with the CDC, and dying charges have quintupled since 1999. The first wave of the disaster started within the Nineties with the overprescription of artificial opioids like OxyContin, whereas medication like heroin and fentanyl rose to prominence within the 2010. Per the CDC, opioids had been the reason for almost 75 % of the 91,799 drug overdose deaths that occurred within the US in 2020.
The disaster wasn’t totally brought on by the Sacklers alone, although, a indisputable fact that “Painkiller” govt producer Eric Newman wished to emphasise within the collection. “It’s actually not simply [about] the Sacklers,” he mentioned. “It’s the political machine. It’s the pharmaceutical industrial complicated. You cannot perceive the epidemic except you take a look at all the individuals. The individuals who did it, the individuals who let it occur, the individuals who suffered from it — and the individuals who blew the whistle on it.”
It’s additionally onerous to grasp the human price of the opioid epidemic by studying statistics alone, however “Painkiller” additionally tries to focus on the real-life tales of individuals harmed by the disaster, and at first of each episode it options an actual one that has been personally affected by OxyContin. First, they learn a disclaimer reminding the viewers that the characters within the present aren’t actual — however then, briefly, they inform their very own story, reminding viewers that all-too-real occasions impressed each a part of what they’re about to look at.
“Painkiller” premieres on Netflix on Aug. 10.