A drugmaker used “The Wizard of Oz” to sell OxyContin

Dec 15, 2017
In an internal sales document, Purdue told sales reps to “follow the yellow brick road” and get doctors to prescribe the opioid.
Publicity photo from the 1939 adaptation for "The Wizard of Oz," which inspired a pharmaceutical sales document.
CBS via Wikimedia Commons

FDA statement on The Uncertain Hour's OxyContin episode

Dec 13, 2017
FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum provided Marketplace with this statement in response to The Uncertain Hour’s investigation into the agency and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.  The goal when developing a drug label is to include the necessary information about a drug’s safety and efficacy so that trained physicians can use this information and their medical expertise […]

Purdue Pharma statement on The Uncertain Hour's OxyContin episode

Dec 13, 2017
Purdue Pharma spokesman Robert Josephson provided Marketplace with this statement in response to questions from The Uncertain Hour about OxyContin, the company, and its relationship with the FDA. The company’s responses are published in full below. Purdue Pharma L.P. Response December 12, 2017 1. Why did Purdue not do any clinical studies to back up the […]

How one sentence helped set off the opioid crisis

Dec 13, 2017
Recently unsealed documents shed light on how the maker of OxyContin seems to have relied more on focus groups than on scientific studies to create an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Songs of struggle, then and now

Nov 15, 2017
There's an incredible history of protest songs in American political history, so we made you a playlist.
Picture dated October 22, 1991, of legendary jazz and blues singer Nina Simone in concert at the Olympia music hall in Paris. 
Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

The gaming industry's rise to the top

Nov 9, 2017
A listener (kind of) stumped Molly with this question on Make Me Smart's Explainathon.
Gamers test 'Destiny 2' at the Sony PlayStation exhibit during the Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 13, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images