The Crime of the Century (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Two-part documentary

TV-MA.

This is a scathing attack on the pharmaceutical industry in general and to miscreants Purdue Pharma Research & Development and Insys Therapeutics specifically. Living with pain must be horrible. People will do virtually anything to get rid of, or reduce, the pain. That makes them easy victims for sociopathic pharmaceutical entrepreneurs who manufacture synthetic opiates like the Sackler family of Purdue, who made and promoted Oxycontin, and John Kapoor of Insys, who made Subsys, a sublingual liquid form of the massively addictive drug fentanyl, and this film goes after both with a vengeance, although Kapoor gets most of the attention, probably because the Sacklers were wise enough to successfully avoid damaging videos.

But director Alex Gibney is known for one-sided presentations like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) that missed the main story entirely to build a diatribe against another politician (Bush). So whenever Gibney is involved my antennae go up.

So, as an example of Gibney’s manipulations, Paul Goldenheim, Purdue Pharma VP, lied to Congress. But there is a cut in the film clip of what Goldenheim is saying. He starts talking, then there’s a cut from behind his head and a shot has been inserted after he says, “…in February of 2000 was the first time we became aware that something different was going on. In February of 2000 we got a copy of a letter that then US Attorney Jay McCloskey sent to physicians in Maine warning them of problems with OxyContim that were occurring in certain communities…” then it cuts to a view from behind him as the sound track has him saying, “…and since that time I am proud of the response…” then it cuts back to the previous frontal one shot as he continues speaking ”…as an executive of this company I’m very proud to be working for this company…” The only answer for the cut is that what he says has been inserted out of context because he did not say it in the same sentence or breath of what came before or what comes after. I’d like to know what was cut and why this was inserted. I have little doubt that some nefarious editing was done. Why?

But in the end this is a good story exposing how there are extremely bad players in the pharmaceutical industry who care much more about profits than the welfare of its customers. Particularly egregious was/is Kapoor who simply ignored the addictiveness of Subsys and kept urging his sales reps to bribe doctors to prescribe higher and higher doses of the medication so he could make more and more money. In fact, the whole point was to get people addicted for life.

 It’s pretty amazing, also, how compliant doctors were in conspiring to get their patients addicted, but Gibney pretty much passes over this, which, in truth, is as bad and shocking as what the pharmaceutical companies were doing, if not worse. Doctors have a fiduciary duty to their patients and this duty was totally ignore by a plethora of MDs.

Government does not get off easy, though, as one person is quoted as saying, “Policies are made by the manufacturers.” As an example, Gibney shows politicians like GOP Representative (now Senator) Marsha Blackburn attacking a bill that would put drastic controls on the distribution of opioids and showing how much she and some of the other politicians received in donations from the pharmaceutical industry. But it wasn’t just Republicans, which is what the politically biased Gibney always attacks, because the bill passed in a huge bipartisan victory. However, Gibney only shows Republicans attacking the bill. That’s a disgrace, but it’s what to be expected from Gibney.

The problem that I see, however, is that opioids apparently do work. People in pain did get relief. This film ignores going into the question of whether or not someone could take a strictly controlled prescription of opioids that would guard against addiction but allow the patient to get the desperately needed relief from pain. Like in his shallow, one-sided view on Enron, Gibney ignores investigating the solution to the pain problem entirely. It’s probably too complex for poor Alex to bother with.

One disturbing aspect is that Purdue hired Rudy Giulianni to flack for them. That was very disappointing. But I guess all politicians are alike. If you pay them they’ll say or do anything. Shame on Rudy.

What I kept thinking during this entire documentary was the way the government and Moderna and Pfizer are doing everything possible to get everyone in the United States (and world) to take their untested mRNA gene therapy shots which are being misrepresented as “vaccines,” which they are not. Moderna and Pfizer are making billions while people line up to take their shots without the knowledge that they are untested and experimental, trusting their government and the pharmaceuticals. According to one report, together Moderna and Pfizer have captured market share and, by the end of 2020, Pfizer had achieved a 180% increase in revenue and Moderna had scored a 3,900% increase. Maybe after potential shot recipients see this movie they won’t be so trusting. HBO.

After my review was published, Andy Grove, the film's editor, responded as follows: