Side Effects (film)

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Side Effects (2005) is a feature film about the pharmaceutical industry starring Katherine Heigl (known for her role on the television series Grey's Anatomy). Also starring Lucian McAfee, Dorian DeMichele, Dave Durbin, Temeceka Harris.

Directed and written by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau, the movie is about Karly Hert, a young woman who fumbles with love and ethics as she navigates a career within corporate America's pharmaceutical industry. The movie's title is a reference to the medical term side effects.

Karly Hert (Katherine Heigl) has spent the last ten years selling drugs...legally, that is. She works for one of corporate America's darlings, the pharmaceutical industry. Karly has it all - a big salary, a company car, a closet full of hot business suits and a growing pit in her stomach...

Everything changes when she meets sexy Zach Danner (Lucian McAfee), a down-to-earth guy. Sparks fly! As their relationship heats up, he encourages Karly to walk her talk and leave her empty job. Karly devises a plan to get out - she begins being brutally honest with physicians about her drugs' "benefits." Ironically, her sales go through the roof and she is once again wooed by the seductive golden handcuffs.

Somehow leaving is never quite as easy as it seems...

In May 2006, Slattery-Moschkau released a related documentary entitled "Money Talks: Profits before Patient Safety", which further explored drug industry marketing practices in interviews with doctors, journalists, and activists. The director herself was in the industry for ten years. She started having qualms about her company's practices after five years, but reported that the financial rewards these companies give their representatives kept her in the industry for five more years.

A Smart and Sexy Comedy!

Somehow leaving is never quite as easy as it seems...

SIDE EFFECTS stars Grey's Anatomy's hottest intern, Katherine Heigl - it's the perfect prescription for a new comedy!

The DVD contains exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, director's commentary, and more.

"The timing of Side Effects couldn't be better." USA Today

"Biting" CNN

"Savagely Funny" British Medical Journal "Drop dead fascinating" Healthy Talk Radio

Based on the writer/director's decade selling drugs...

Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau is a mom, wife and former drug pusher (legally) turned filmmaker. At 35, with no prior filmmaking experience, she wrote, directed, and co-produced the critically acclaimed independent film Side Effects.

The film, starring Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy) is closely based on her decade working for Big Pharma as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Katherine Heigl delivers a jaw dropping performance in this smart and sexy comedy.

Due to the overwhelming response to Side Effects, Kathleen went on to make the award-winning documentary Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety which delves deeper into the issues of pharmaceutical influence. Money Talks features interviews with key opinion leaders from Harvard, UCLA, and Columbia.

Kathleen chose to the make the films as an entertaining way to reach and educate the public about the questionable marketing tactics the industry uses to push its pills. Her goal is to encourage consumers to make wiser choices about the drugs they are putting into their bodies�and ultimately take control of their health.

Who are those well-dressed people in your doctor's waiting room?