Quick Facts
Biography
Barry Meier (writer) is a writer and former New York Times journalist, who wrote the 2003 non-fiction, Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death, Meier's articles "have led to Congressional hearings and changes in federal laws."
Education
Meier studied at Syracuse University.
Career
In his career as journalist, Meier has "specialized in reporting on business, public policy and health and safety. Meier was a The Wall Street Journal reporter for five years. He worked at New York Newsday as a special projects reporter. He is a former reported for The New York Times. According his The Times profile, articles published by The Times and "elsewhere have led to Congressional hearings and changes in federal laws."
Pain Killer
In 2001, Meier began began investigating Purdue Pharma and OxyContin, when it was still a relatively unknown drug made by a relatively unknown family the Sacklers, which includes Mortimer Sackler and his brother Raymond Sackler, their children and grandchildren — who were at that time "one of the wealthiest families in the United States". In an August 24, 2001 taped-interview with three top Purdue executives, CEO Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Dr. Paul Goldenheim, the executives told Meier that "they had learned of OxyContin’s growing abuse only in early 2000, a statement they also made before congressional committees". a company that had undertaken a "massive marketing campaign", based on a "unique claim" for OxyContin, with FDA permission, that, "as a long-acting opioid, it might be less likely to cause abuse and addiction than shorter-acting painkillers like Percocet." In 2001 he published Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death,A 2004 New York Times review of Pain Killer, described how "For years, doctors who prescribed OxyContin were told that the risk of addiction to the painkiller was less than 1 percent. Only after the drug had devastated thousands of lives was it revealed that this figure, touted as scientific fact, was based on a small study that had no relevance for the general public."