Award-winning journalist Gerald Posner traces the heroes and villains of the trillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry and uncovers how those once entrusted with improving life have often betrayed that ideal to corruption and reckless profiteering — with deadly consequences. Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as antibiotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet, exorbitant prices for lifesaving drugs, safety recalls, soaring rates of addiction and overdose on prescription opioids have caused many to lose faith in drug companies.
Pharma also uncovers the real story of the Sacklers, the family that became one of America’s wealthiest from the success of OxyContin, their blockbuster narcotic painkiller at the centre of the opioid crisis.