Podcast Summary: "Government Protected Big Pharma" – Gerald Posner on OxyContin, FDA Lies & Vatican Secrets

PBD Podcast | Ep. 663 | October 9, 2025
Host: Patrick Bet-David (PBD)
Guest: Gerald Posner (Investigative Journalist & Author)

1. Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation between host Patrick Bet-David and acclaimed investigative journalist Gerald Posner, whose work explores the dark intersections of government, business, and health. The primary focus is how Big Pharma evolved, with a case study on OxyContin, and broader exploration into government collusion, marketing abuses, regulatory failures, and the human and societal costs that follow. The discussion also delves into gender medicine, vaccine regulation, financial influence in politics, church-state relationships, high-profile conspiracies, and the use of media and PR to shape public perception.

2. Key Discussion Points and Insights

I. Early History of Big Pharma & Legal Drugs

[00:00–09:54]

• Wild West Origins: Posner details how, in the late 1800s, the pharmaceutical industry was unregulated—cocaine and morphine were in common medical use, sold via Sears mail order (the "Amazon" of the time), and marketed with little concern for safety.
• Growth via Addiction (cocaine, morphine, heroin): Companies like Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Bayer all staked business on addictive medicines.
• Bayer’s 5-Year Run: Bayer introduced acetaminophen (Tylenol), aspirin, heroin ("a cure for morphine addiction"), and phenobarbital, often choosing to market riskier drugs and ignoring signs of harm.
• Regulatory Beginnings: The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act required transparency on ingredient lists. The 1914 Harrison Act began banning narcotics, pushing pharma to repurpose or rebrand addictive drugs (e.g., as amphetamines for pilots in WWII).

"We think of Big Pharma as this giant, but a hundred years ago it was nothing. It was the Wild West for medicine and drugs."
— Gerald Posner [05:40]

II. Birth of Modern Pharmaceutical Marketing & The Sackler Legacy

[16:02–22:58]

• Motivation in Pharma: While some engineering in pharma was well-intentioned, marketing—pioneered by Arthur Sackler—turned products into blockbuster drugs regardless of medical merit.
• Arthur Sackler as Marketing Genius (1950s–1970s): Introduced Madison Avenue tactics, built sales teams, paid for medical ads, and started direct-to-patient advertising (later key in Valium’s dominance and ultimately OxyContin’s spread).
• From Morphine to OxyContin: Sackler’s relatives later applied his marketing blueprint to OxyContin, over-representing safety and addiction risk, lobbying doctors, and funding pain advocacy groups.

"No single individual did more to shape the character of medical advertising than Arthur Sackler."
— Patrick Bet-David quoting industry sources [23:32]

• Off-Label Drug Use Loophole: Doctors, by design, still have wide latitude in prescribing drugs for unapproved uses—a legacy from an era with few medicines, now with 3,000+ options [10:03].
• Example: Drugs once used for sex offender castration are now prescribed "off label" as puberty blockers for children [12:09, 57:11], generating ethical and medical controversy.

III. OxyContin Scandal: Marketing, Regulation, and Crisis

[28:21–36:47]

• OxyContin Release (1996): Approved with misleading “less addictive” labeling, based on no real studies (FDA official later went to Purdue Pharma).
• Targeting Vulnerable Markets: Promotion focused on blue-collar, rural areas (Appalachia), where over-marketing and lack of oversight led to pill mills and mass overprescribing.
• Consent Decree Failure: Even after a 2007 federal consent agreement (Purdue’s promise to halt deceptive practices), sales and abuse escalated, ending only when legal pressure and bankruptcy arrived.

"They signed the agreement, went back, and did the same thing. They put it on steroids… They essentially got away with it."
— Gerald Posner [19:19, 33:23]

• Cost and Human Toll: By 2021, overdose deaths linked to OxyContin and its class of drugs exceeded 645,000 [32:31]. As regulation tightened late, many addicted individuals shifted to street fentanyl—now the leading cause of overdose deaths.
• Doctor Misconduct: Descriptions of pill mills, cash-only operations, and the extreme profits made ($5–25 per pill), with doctors, pharmacists, and regulators implicated [36:47].

IV. Regulatory Capture, Political Influence & Vaccine Liability

[39:21–44:54]

• The Vaccine Liability Shield (1986 Vaccine Injury Act): Law shielded companies from lawsuits, leading to a boom in vaccine development—often for conditions with questionable necessity, and with the U.S. population now subject to dozens of vaccines by adolescence.
  • "Once pharma companies knew they wouldn’t get sued, they started developing vaccines for everything." — Posner [35:34]
• Political Money and Advocacy: Posner explains how pharma bypasses donation caps via advocacy groups and front organizations. Senators like Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy received millions directly, plus more indirectly [41:27].
• Can Laws Be Undone?: Both host and guest are skeptical a future administration (Trump, Kennedy) will prioritize rolling back pharma protections, but agree that threatening pharma profits (by reducing prices) is the only reliable catalyst for change [42:42].

V. From Prescription to Street: The Opioid-to-Fentanyl Pipeline

[45:12–48:17]

• Crackdown on Pharma-Produced Opioids drove addicted individuals to the illegal fentanyl market, with devastating results.
• Sackler Family Wealth: OxyContin profits built a $14 billion private family fortune—money used for philanthropic “reputation laundering” (naming rights, etc.) [47:10].
  • Legal settlements left the Sacklers with billions and a "get out of jail free" card via bankruptcy court [48:17].

VI. Broader Pharma and Cultural Controversies

[51:54–62:54]

• Off-Label Drug Abuse: Vicodin, Xanax, and "designer" anti-anxiety and painkiller drugs have been aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly prescribed (often to vulnerable patients, by dentists and doctors, with disastrous results).
• Gender Medicine & Puberty Blockers:
  • Pharma’s Role: Drugs used for chemical castration (e.g., for sex offenders) are now prescribed to gender-questioning children as puberty blockers—“one of the greatest medical scandals of our time,” per Posner [57:11].
  • Funding & Ideology: Billionaires and major foundations (like the Pritzker family) funnel money to medical centers to support and normalize pediatric gender transition programs—a lucrative and ideologically charged industry.
  • Misinformation and Medical Risks: Adverse effects are downplayed; children are allowed or pushed to make irreversible medical decisions without true informed consent.
  • Publishing and Censorship: Gerald Posner lost American publishing representation over his proposal to investigate “the money in the gender industry”; he’s now represented by J.K. Rowling’s agent [62:54].

VII. Secrets and Scandal: Vatican, Insurance, and Conspiracies

[68:05–101:51]

• Vatican Banking & WWII:
  • The Vatican bank was used to hide investments and profit during WWII—including life insurance policies on Jews sent to death camps, which saw profits “through the roof” [123:27].
• Saudis and 9/11:
  • Posner suggests that while the Saudi royal family did not “officially” plan 9/11, some members funded bin Laden as a way to export jihad away from the Kingdom. After 9/11, key individuals connected to Al Qaeda informants died suddenly, raising suspicion [68:28].
• Building 7, Insurance, and the Limits of Investigation:
  • Debate over WTC7 collapse: Posner is skeptical of "inside job" claims, points to lack of actionable insurance fraud evidence, and reiterates his guiding principle: "Follow the money" [77:02, 81:00].
  • Investigative journalism often stymied by lack of access to private data and FOIA delays.

"Anyone who says ‘I’ve reached my conclusion and nothing will change it’—they’re in an echo chamber. You always need to look at new evidence." — Gerald Posner [79:13]

• Epstein, Intelligence, and Blackmail:
  • Posner speculates Epstein was used by multiple intelligence agencies for money movement, with British intelligence allegedly hacking his New York townhouse to monitor Prince Andrew [86:29].
  • Ghislaine Maxwell holds the "Epstein list" in her head; Trump leaves open possibility of a pardon only "for the goods." [90:24]

VIII. Conspiracy Theories: JFK and Beyond

[95:25–101:02]

• JFK Assassination:
  • Posner supports Oswald as the lone shooter, despite shifting mainstream narratives and persistent belief in conspiracy (and even wrote a book arguing this). He criticizes shallow recycling of “new” videos as news [98:13].
  • He encourages open publication of all classified files but sees no evidence yet of an official coverup.

IX. Antisemitism, Israel, and Modern Political Divisions

[102:34–117:16]

• Israel’s Worsening Global Image:
  • Public opinion has dramatically shifted against Israel, especially among Democrats, a change Posner attributes to effective pro-Hamas PR, media bias, and Israel’s own failures in storytelling.
  • Rise of antisemitism: Universities, cities like London, and the American left now tolerate or even enable antisemitism once unthinkable in mainstream circles.
  • Traditional Catholicism vs. Judaism:
    • Deep historical roots in the accusation of Jews as “Christ killers”; role in scapegoating and economic stereotypes (moneylending, etc.); and the modern persistence of conspiracy theories like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

"Jews who are Democrats as the party moves left and anti-Israel are embracing a party that is not their friend."
— Gerald Posner [105:40]

3. Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Pharma's Motives:
  "I actually think that in most cases…the people in the laboratory are really looking for a cure. Where it goes off is marketing."
  — Gerald Posner [16:02]

• On OxyContin Marketing Post-Settlement:
  "They signed the agreement, went back and did the same thing. They put it on steroids…They essentially got away with it."
  — Gerald Posner [19:19, 33:23]

• Historic License Culture:
  "You could call yourself a doctor and open a practice…a gram of cocaine cost 25 cents at any druggist."
  — Patrick Bet-David, reading Posner’s book [05:40]

• On Gender Medicine:
  "Nobody's born in the wrong body…The pediatric gender business is one of the greatest medical scandals playing out in our lifetime."
  — Gerald Posner [57:11]

• On the Vaccine Act’s Impact:
  "Once pharma companies knew they wouldn’t get sued, they started developing vaccines for just about everything."
  — Gerald Posner [35:34]

• Investigative Principle:
  "Anyone who says ‘I’ve reached my conclusion and nothing will change it’—they’re in an echo chamber."
  — Gerald Posner [79:13]

• On Traditional Catholic Antisemitism:
  "The old traditional Catholic view was: Jews and Protestants were bad enough, but Jews were the worst of all."
  — Gerald Posner [121:39]

4. Timestamps for Major Topics

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------|------------| | Wild West origins of pharma/cocaine | 00:00–09:54| | Arthur Sackler & pharma marketing | 16:02–22:58| | OxyContin's rise and regulatory failure | 28:21–36:47| | Vaccine liability, pharma's political power | 39:21–44:54| | Off-label use, puberty blockers, gender business | 57:11–62:54| | Vatican, WWII banking, insurance scandal | 68:05–123:27| | 9/11, Saudis, and high-level conspiracies | 68:28–101:51| | Epstein, intelligence, and blackmail | 86:29–93:06| | Antisemitism, Israel, Catholic/Jewish history |102:34–127:59|

5. Overall Tone and Takeaways

The tone is both sharp and reflective, rich with Posner's investigations and hard skepticism about both industry and government. The episode combines a journalist’s curiosity, an insider's detail, and the host’s populist, business-minded curiosity. It’s a sweeping tour of American medical, financial, and political corruption, grounded in historical perspective but with urgent relevance for current debates.

For listeners:
The episode provides a thorough primer on why—and how—Big Pharma, political power, and media manipulation converge; insight into the ongoing controversies around gender medicine, vaccines, and pharmaceutical ethics; background for new skepticism of regulatory bodies and legal shields; and the historical roots of persistent antisemitism and antisemitic conspiracy. The conversation is filled with details, challenging assertions, and an open call for new whistleblowers and truth-tellers.