The Mad Men of Medicine Avenue. Investigative Journalist and “Pharma” author, Gerald Posner

PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine

All right, welcome back. If you think you have a pretty good handle on the opioid crisis, the pharmaceutical industry and how it all works, today’s episode may challenge that assumption. It certainly did for us. The modern pharmaceutical and biotech industries are like no other. How they got to where they are is a story like no other. The same businesses that have given us incredible lifesaving advances have also given us disasters like the opioid epidemic. The history of the pharmaceutical industry is more complex and captivating than you might imagine. Today’s guest in award winning investigative journalist, Gerald Posner. He’s written twelve books including national best sellers such as “God’s Bankers,” “Mengele. The complete Story,” and The Pulitzer Prize finalist, “Case Closed.” His latest book, “Pharma,” is master class history of the modern pharma and biotech space. Understanding that history is critical to understanding the present opioid crisis. In-fact, we didn’t even cover the opioid crisis until the final 15 minutes of the podcast. With so much to cover, we asked Gerald for an extra 30 minutes beyond our usual hour. Even that wasn’t enough, but it was lot of fun, and hopefully all the reason you need to read the book yourself. With that said, let’s get started…