Exposing a $1,900,000,000 Pharma Company

Victoria, Southern Australia. Linda Matthews is watching her husband, Brad, lose control. Fear rises up from the pit of her stomach. She's never seen him like this before, but Brad is hooked on a strong opioid painkiller called tapentadol.

Marco lives in Berlin, Germany. He's 23 years old. A few years ago, he bought a special printer that lets him create a very specific type of document. Prescriptions for a drug called tramadol. Today, he's taking one to a pharmacy for the last time. In Zico's hometown of Lomé, Togo, tramadol is known as the poor man's

cocaine. He pops one and hops in his moto taxi to start his shift. An invisible threat runs through these people's stories. It leads back to an industrial town in Germany, near the Dutch border, Stolberg. One of the world's leading painkiller manufacturers is based here. It's called Grünenthal. And the global pharma giant has a

controversial past. One of Grünenthal's key products is the opioid tramadol. Some experts warn that it's too loosely regulated, that it seems to be acting as a gateway drug. Meanwhile, in European countries like Germany, concern is growing over young people misusing prescription meds. Some experts see signs of an emerging opioid crisis. In parts of Africa, tramadol has

already fueled a crisis of its own. And a little over a decade ago, Grünenthal started pushing a new and even stronger opioid onto the global market, tapentadol. Doctors have allegedly been actively encouraged to prescribe it. Potential risks may have been downplayed, and regulatory oversight may have fallen short. Some have compared Grünenthal's methods

to those of an American pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, and their opioid >> OxyContin. >> OxyContin. >> OxyContin. >> OxyContin. >> Are we looking at a new opioid crisis? One made in Germany. Together, we strive to make it possible. >> Tramadol is highly abused in many African countries. >> A world free of pain.