Pushing Painkillers | An Untapped Market | 1
American Innovations
Wondery
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Doctors once shied away from using opioids to treat chronic pain, citing the risk of addiction. But in the 1970s, a new generation of doctors started to argue that opioids should be reconsidered, and that allowing terminal patients to suffer in agony is torturous. As the palliative care movement grows, Purdue Frederick, a small pharmaceutical company, sees an opportunity to bring opioids out of the shadows and to the masses...to devastating effect.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to an episode of a Wondering Plus exclusive series to continue listening. |
| 0:04.6 | Join Wondering Plus and enjoy AdFree Listening to over 40,000 episodes, early access to your |
| 0:10.0 | favorite podcasts and more. Find Wondering Plus in the Wondering App or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:15.6 | You're about to hear the first episode of the first ever Wondering Plus exclusive season of American |
| 0:21.8 | innovations, pushing pain killers. To listen to the whole series, AdFree, subscribe to Wondering Plus |
| 0:28.7 | in Apple Podcasts or the Wondering App. |
| 0:39.8 | It's September 13th, 2005. Dr. Stephen Schneider drives through the streets of a suburb in |
| 0:46.4 | which Daw Kansas. He passes by wheat fields as he makes his way from his home to the medical |
| 0:52.1 | clinic he runs with his wife. Schneider is 51 years old with broad shoulders and a neatly trimmed |
| 0:58.0 | mustache. He taps his hands on the steering wheel, excited for another day at work. He loves being |
| 1:04.3 | a doctor. He finds it rewarding, giving physicals to high school athletes and treating residents |
| 1:09.9 | at local nursing homes. But most of all, he likes treating people in pain and making them feel |
| 1:15.6 | better. In the past few years, pain has become his specialty. What the heck? But as Schneider pulls |
| 1:22.4 | up to his sprawling Santa Fe style clinic, he doesn't find the usual line of patients waiting |
| 1:27.7 | for him to open. Instead, it's cordoned off with police tape. People in navy blue jackets |
| 1:33.6 | reading DEA swarm around the building. As he parks, Schneider turns to see two men in aviator sunglasses |
| 1:41.0 | standing outside his window. Dr. Stephen Schneider, Schneider nods. I'm with the Kansas Bureau of |
| 1:47.1 | Investigation. My colleague here is with the Drug Enforcement Agency. We need you to come with us. |
| 1:52.8 | Schneider follows the agents inside the clinic. His mind is racing, wondering what this is all about. |
| 1:59.9 | They walk through the reception area with its domed glass atrium, past signs for the x-ray |
| 2:05.1 | and blood labs. Until, finally, they enter one of the clinics 14 exam rooms. Schneider sits on |
| 2:11.6 | the exam table while the agents loom in front of him. The taller agent speaks first. Dr. Schneider, |
... |
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