Meet the Sacklers: the family feuding over blame for the opioid crisis
Summary and Analysis…
A good reference article summarizing some of the key players in the Sackler family and their relationship to the opioid epidemic. This article is somewhat dated in terms of legal action against the Sacklers but nonetheless provides potentially important information about the family.
Excerpted from The Guardian
The Sackler Drug Rehab Facility, unlike the prestigious Sackler art galleries of New York and London does not exist. Yet.
If lawyers have their way, however, or public opinion pricks a few consciences, it may soon.
But what’s less well known, though increasingly being exposed, is that much of their wealth comes from one product – OxyContin, the blockbuster prescription painkiller first launched in 1996.
The pill is stronger than morphine and sparked the opioid crisis that’s now killing more than 100 people a day in America and has spawned millions of addicts. It’s also attracted a wave of lawsuits alleging ongoing deception about the safety of OxyContin, which the company had previously admittedmisbranding in a 2007 criminal case.
Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin but, unlike their company, none of the Sacklers are personally being sued over it.
