Barry Meier

Meier studied at Syracuse University.

In his career as journalist, Meier has specialized in reporting on business, public policy, and health and safety. He reported for The Wall Street Journal for five years, worked at New York Newsday as a special projects reporter, and reported for The New York Times. According to his The Times profile, his articles published by The Times and elsewhere "have led to Congressional hearings and changes in federal laws."{{Cite news| issn = 0362-4331| title = Barry Meier| work = The New York Times| access-date = February 2, 2019| date = nd | url = https://www.nytimes.com/by/barry-meier}}

In 2001, Meier began investigating Purdue Pharma and OxyContin,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-715565.html |series=Books in Brief: Nonfiction |title=Pain Killer|first=Christine |last=Kenneally |date=January 4, 2004|access-date=November 21, 2018 |newspaper=New York Times}} when it was still a relatively unknown drug made by a relatively unknown family, the Sacklers, including Mortimer Sackler and his brother Raymond Sackler, their children and grandchildren—at that time "one of the wealthiest families in the United States".{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/insider/i-thought-the-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-story-was-over-i-was-wrong.html |title=Every Time I Thought the Purdue Pharma OxyContin Story Was Over, I Was Wrong: Not only would a previously undisclosed prosecution report surface more than a decade after it was written, but as fate would have it, I would be in it |first=Barry |last=Meier |date=June 8, 2018 |access-date=November 21, 2018 |newspaper=New York Times}} In an August 24, 2001 Meier recorded an interview with Purdue CEO Michael Friedman and executives Howard Udell and Dr. Paul Goldenheim, who told Meier "they had learned of OxyContin’s growing abuse only in early 2000, a statement they also made before congressional committees". They said the company 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 Meier published Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death.{{cite book |title=Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death |isbn=9781579546380 |date=October 17, 2003 |publisher=Rodale Books |pages=[https://archive.org/details/painkillerwonder00meie/page/333 333] |first=Barry |last=Meier |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/painkillerwonder00meie/page/333 }} A 2004 New York Times review of the book concluded:

{{blockquote|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.}}

The Painkiller, a television miniseries was based on Meyer's book Pain Killer and "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain", a New Yorker article by Patrick Radden Keefe.{{Cite web|last=Porter|first=Rick|date=October 4, 2021|title=Taylor Kitsch Boards Netflix's Opioid Crisis Drama 'Painkiller'|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/netflix-painkiller-taylor-kitsch-1235024931/|access-date=February 3, 2022|website=The Hollywood Reporter}} The series premiered on Netflix on August 10, 2023.{{Cite web|last=Biggs|first=Jade|date=August 11, 2021|title=OITNB's Uzo Aduba is starring in a Netflix series about the opioid crisis|url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a37270981/painkiller-netflix-series-cast-plot-release-date-trailer/|access-date=February 3, 2022|website=Cosmopolitan}}{{Cite web|title=Watch Painkiller {{!}} Netflix Official Site|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/81095069|access-date=February 3, 2022|website=www.netflix.com}}

Meier's 2021 book entitled Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies focused on the former The Wall Street Journal journalist, Glenn R. Simpson and the company he founded and co-owned{{emdash}}Fusion GPS{{emdash}}the spy they hired{{emdash}}Christopher Steele{{emdash}}and his report{{emdash}}the Steele dossier prior to the 2016 United States presidential election.{{Cite news| issn = 0261-3077| last = Kaiser| first = Charles| title = Spooked review: exposé of murky world of private spies is a dodgy dossier itself| work = The Guardian| access-date = 24 December 2023 | date = 11 July 2021| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/11/spooked-review-private-spies-steele-dossier-russia-trump-black-cube}}{{cite book |last=Meier |first=Barry |title=Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies |publisher=Harper |date=May 18, 2021 |isbn=978-0062950680}}{{Cite news| issn = 0362-4331| last = Cohan| first = William D.| title = The Murky World of Private Spies and the Damage They May Be Doing| work = The New York Times| access-date = 24 December 2023 | date = 17 May 2021| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/books/review/spooked-barry-meier.html}}

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• {{cite book |last=Meier |first=Barry |title=Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |date=May 3, 2016 |isbn=978-0374210458}}
• {{cite book |last=Meier |first=Barry |title=Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic |publisher=Random House |date=May 29, 2018 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0525511106}}
• {{cite book |last=Meier |first=Barry |title=Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies |publisher=Harper |date=May 18, 2021 |isbn=978-0062950680}}

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Category:Living people

Category:American columnists

Category:American male journalists

Category:Radical centrist writers

Category:The New York Times columnists

Category:Jewish American journalists

Category:1949 births

Category:21st-century American Jews