MOVIE NEWS – Chris Evans and Emily Blunt’s Netflix movie Pain Hustlers is inspired by a real-life opioid scandal. It focuses on a drug called Lonafen. WARNING: the article contains spoilers from the film!
Netflix’s Pain Hustlers tells the story of a corrupt pharmaceutical company that sells a new opioid called Lonafen, which leads to scandal in a Florida town. The 2023 crime drama film is loosely based on a true story. One of the many opioid epidemics the United States has faced in recent years.
However, the writers had to take some creative liberties in crafting the story presented in the film, including the drug at the center.
The film stars Emily Blunt and Chris Evans as pharmaceutical representatives tasked with selling their company’s new drug. Unfortunately, for many who were eventually prescribed Lonafen, the drug came with dangerous side effects.
Lonafen, seen in Pain Hustlers, is not a real drug (but based on Subsys)
Although the story of Pain Hustlers seems real because it resembles many real-life scandals, the narrative is largely fictional. Including a pain reliever called Lonafen. Lonafen is a fictional opioid created for the plot of Netflix’s 2023 crime drama. It is not a drug that anyone can access.
However, the movie was inspired by real events, so Lonafen is based on a real drug called Subsys.
Subsys is a liquid form of fentanyl manufactured by Insys Therapeutics, an Arizona-based pharmaceutical company. The painkiller turned out to be highly addictive. Insys Therapeutics bribed doctors to prescribe it to patients who didn’t need it. As a result, the pharmaceutical company faced several lawsuits.
Ingredients and effects of Lonafen explained
As mentioned above, many aspects of the scandal surrounding Insys Therapeutics and Subsys were changed in the film. However, there are a lot of similarities between Subsys and Lonafen. Both drugs were created to relieve breakthrough pain in cancer patients. It was a form of liquid fentanyl. Like Subsys, Lonafen is highly addictive. It is also prescribed to patients who do not necessarily need it.
Zanna, the drug company featured in the Netflix movie, bribed doctors to give Lonafen to people without lifelong cancer pain. As Insys Therapeutics did in reality. Unfortunately, as a result, many people became addicted to Subsys in the same way that the characters of Pain Hustlers were addicted to Lonafen.
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