These WhatsApp Messages Show the Opioid Crisis Was Just a Big PR Headache for the Sackler Family
Members of P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) and Truth Pharm staged a protest on September 12, 2019 outside Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, CT.Erik McGregor/ZUMA Wire Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.The Sackler family is known…
These Researchers Have Developed an Inexpensive, Low-Tech COVID Vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, a drug producer working with AstraZeneca and Novavax to manufacture their COVID-19 vaccines.Subhash Sharma/Zuma Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.Earlier this month, the likelihood that the COVID-19 pandemic would actually end…
Pfizer’s Vaccine Sounds Great, But Don’t Roll Up Your Sleeve Just Yet
A healthcare worker administers a shot.Inna Borodaieva/Zuma For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.On Monday, the race among pharmaceutical companies to complete a vaccine effective against COVID-19 reached a critical new stage. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German-based biotechnology firm BioNTech announced that their joint vaccine…
Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Can’t Leave Prison to Cure Coronavirus, Judge Rules
Martin ShkreliErik Pendzich/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Martin Shkreli will not be let out of prison to research a coronavirus treatment. US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto issued a nine-page ruling Saturday denying Shkreli’s request, noting that probation officials viewed the notion that Shkreli…
The Opioid Settlement Will Fund Desperate Counties—But Could Come at a Steep Cost
John Moore/Getty Just hours before a high-profile federal opioid trial was to begin in Cleveland on Monday morning, drug companies reached a $260 million settlement deal with Ohio’s Summit and Cuyahoga counties. The two counties are bellwether plaintiffs—test cases for how the more than 2,700 counties, cities, and tribal lands suing drug companies in the…
Inside Johnson and Johnson’s Quiet Domination of the Opioid Market
Mother Jones illustration; Getty Johnson and Johnson, the company best known for its baby powder and soap, quietly dominated the opioid market for years, growing poppies in Tasmania and selling narcotics to leading drug companies, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. “It was influences from companies like Johnson and Johnson that infiltrated and spread like a…