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'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. A tour de force.' - Patrick Radden Keefe, award-winning author of Empire of Pain
'Everyone should read this book' - Sheelagh Kolhatkar, author of Black Edge

John Kapoor had already made a small fortune in pharmaceuticals when he developed a highly potent fentanyl-based painkiller that was as addictive as it was effective. Desperate to make the most of his new drug, he brought together an ambitious, persuasive and relentless group of young recruits who were willing to do anything to profit from this seemingly life-chanigng medicine.

This is the inside story of hustlers turned millionaires and a shocking expose of how opioids entered the national bloodstream.

'A fast-paced and maddening account' - The New York Times Book Review

Previously published as The Hard Sell

The inside story of a band of entrepreneurial upstarts who made millions selling painkillers - until their scheme unravelled, placing them at the centre of a landmark criminal trial.

About the Author
Evan Hughes was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Reporting in 2015. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, GQ, New York, Wired, and The New York Review of Books. He is the author of Literary Brooklyn and Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at a Opioid Startup.

Reviews
'This is that rare story of the opioid crisis in which the bad guys face a genuine reckoning. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. A tour de force.' -- Patrick Radden Keefe
'A fast-paced and maddening account . . . What's most surprising and powerful about The Hard Sell is not one company's criminality . . . as much as how institutionalized these practices were across the modern drug industry.' * New York Times Book Review *
A pacey crime caper set against the backdrop of the opioid crisis . . . When I tell you that reading "The Hard Sell" is like watching a Scorsese film, you will assume I am exaggerating. Pick it up and tell me I'm wrong * The New York Times *
Vivid . . . [An] insightful account of how a company that went public in the most successful IPO of 2013 soon ended up a poster child for corporate greed * The Boston Globe *
Does the world really need another book about the opioid crisis? . . . The Hard Sell by Evan Hughes proves a worthy addition to the collection. * The Washington Post *
A richly reported, mesmerizing tale, and a devastating indictment of our broken pharmaceutical industry. Everyone should read this book. -- Sheelah Kolhatkar, author of Black Edge
When you're running a pharma startup, how does the obvious wrong thing to do become the thing you do anyway? The Hard Sell, fascinating in the fashion of a slow-moving train wreck, is a study of corruption -- Ted Conover, author of Newjack



Book Information
ISBN 9781035034512
Author Evan Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 210g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 17mm