Richard Sackler

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Richard Sackler
Richard Sackler deposition screenshot (cropped).jpg
Sackler in 2015
Born
Richard Stephen Sackler

(1945-03-10) March 10, 1945 (age 79)
Roslyn, New York, US
Education Columbia University (BA)
New York University (MD)
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFormer chairman and president of Purdue Pharma
SpouseBeth Sackler (divorced)
Children3
Parent
Family Sackler

Richard Stephen Sackler (born March 10, 1945) [1] is an American billionaire businessman and physician who was the chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, a former company best known as the developer of OxyContin, whose connection to the opioid epidemic in the United States was the subject of multiple lawsuits and fines, and that filed for bankruptcy in 2019. [2] [3] [4] It has been claimed that Richard Sackler's Purdue is among ”the worst drug dealers in history” [5] and the Sackler family have been described as the "most evil family in America". [6] [7] [8] [9] The company's downfall was the subject of the 2021 Hulu series Dopesick and the 2023 Netflix series Painkiller .

Contents

Early life and education

Sackler was born in 1945 in Roslyn, New York, the son of Beverly (Feldman) and Raymond Sackler. [10] [11] [12]

He received a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, followed by an MD degree from the New York University School of Medicine. [13] [14]

Career

Sackler joined Purdue Pharma in 1971, as assistant to his father, the company's president. [15] He became head of research and development and head of marketing. Sackler was a key figure in the development of Oxycontin, being the moving force behind Purdue Pharma's research around 1990 that pushed Oxycontin to replace MS Contin that was about to have generic competition. Sackler also worked to enlist Russell Portenoy and J. David Haddox into working within the medical community to push a new narrative claiming that opioids were not highly addictive. [3] In pushing Oxycontin through to FDA approval in 1995, Sackler managed to get the FDA to approve a claim that Oxycontin was less addictive than other pain killers, although no studies on how addictive it was or how likely it was to be abused had been conducted as part of the approval process. The addictive nature of opiates has been known for several decades. [3]

Sackler became president in 1999. In 2001, he issued an email to employees of the company urging them to push a narrative that addiction to Oxycontin was caused by the "criminal" addicts who had the addiction, and not caused by anything in the drug itself. [16] Sackler also urged pharmaceutical representatives to urge doctors to prescribe as high doses as possible to increase the company profits.

He was made co-chairman in 2003. [15] Sackler was in charge of the research department that developed OxyContin. As president, he approved the targeted marketing schemes to promote sales of OxyContin to doctors, pharmacists, nurses, academics, and others. Shelby Sherman, an ex-Purdue sales rep, has called these marketing schemes "graft". [2]

In 2008, Sackler, with the knowledge of Mortimer Sackler and Jonathan Sackler, made Purdue Pharma measure its "performance" in proportion to not only the number but also the strength of the doses it sold, despite allegedly knowing that sustained high doses of OxyContin risked serious side effects, including addiction. [17]

8-hour 2015 deposition of Richard Sackler about his family's role in the opioid crisis in the United States. [18]

In 2015, Sackler was deposed by four lawyers in Louisville, Kentucky. The deposition concerned the development and marketing of OxyContin under his watch and that of his family, who were and are active board members of their private company, Purdue Pharma. The marketing and prescribing of OxyContin in Pike County, Kentucky, was of particular interest.

Before the case could go to trial and thus before the deposition could become a matter of public record, Purdue settled for $24 million, admitting no liability, sealing the deposition, and requiring the Kentucky prosecutors to destroy, or return to Purdue, millions of pages of internal documents obtained from the company during discovery. The medical news website STAT then sued to unseal Richard Sackler's deposition. A state judge ruled in its favor. Purdue appealed, [3] but the deposition was later made public . [18]

In 2018, the State of Massachusetts sued Richard Sackler, Purdue Pharma, and 15 other Purdue Pharma executives and Sackler family members alleging they misled doctors and patients about the risks of its opioid-based pain medications in order to boost sales and to keep patients away from safer alternatives. [19] [20] Richard Sackler wrote, "We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem. They are the reckless criminals," in an email regarding the Massachusetts court filing. [21]

In January 2019, The New York Times confirmed that Sackler told company officials in 2008 to "measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths." [17] This was verified again with legally obtained documents tied to a new lawsuit, which was filed in June by the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, and claims that Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction. Nonetheless, they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit, the lawsuit has charged. In addition, on February 1, 2019, unredacted documents were released by AG Healey showing the Sacklers were directing doctors to over-prescribe the drug and encourage medicating strategy under the code name "Region Zero", that details a list of doctors who prescribed inordinately large amounts of Oxycontin for no true medical reason, but rather for the directly related profit of the Sackler family. [22]

Personal life

Sackler was married to Beth Sackler but is now divorced; [2] they have three children: Rebecca, Marianna, and David. [14] They have a charitable foundation, the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation. [23] Since 2013, he has lived outside Austin, Texas. [3]

Sackler was portrayed by Michael Stuhlbarg in the 2021 Hulu series Dopesick.

Matthew Broderick portrays Sackler in the Netflix limited series Painkiller , which premiered on August 10, 2023.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxycodone</span> Opioid medication

Oxycodone, sold under various brand names such as Roxicodone and OxyContin, is a semi-synthetic opioid used medically for treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is highly addictive and is a commonly abused drug. It is usually taken by mouth, and is available in immediate-release and controlled-release formulations. Onset of pain relief typically begins within fifteen minutes and lasts for up to six hours with the immediate-release formulation. In the United Kingdom, it is available by injection. Combination products are also available with paracetamol (acetaminophen), ibuprofen, naloxone, naltrexone, and aspirin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur M. Sackler</span> American physician and marketing executive (1913–1987)

Arthur Mitchell Sackler was an American psychiatrist and marketer of pharmaceuticals whose fortune originated in medical advertising and trade publications. He was also an art collector. He was one of the three patriarchs of the controversial Sackler family pharmaceutical dynasty.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purdue Pharma</span> American pharmaceutical company (1892–2019 bankruptcy)

Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company (1892–2019), was an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was sold to Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler in 1952, and then owned principally by the Sackler family and their descendants.

Raymond Sackler was an American physician and businessman. He acquired Purdue Pharma together with his brothers Arthur M. Sackler and Mortimer Sackler. Purdue Pharma is the developer of OxyContin, the drug at the center of the opioid epidemic in the United States.

Mortimer David Sackler was an American-born psychiatrist and entrepreneur who was a co-owner, with his brothers Arthur and Raymond, of Purdue Pharma. During his lifetime, Sackler's philanthropy included donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, the Royal College of Art, the Louvre and Berlin's Jewish Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Sackler</span> American historian and philanthropist

Elizabeth Ann Sackler is a public historian, arts activist, and the daughter of Arthur M. Sackler; as such, she is a member of the Sackler family. She is the founder of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opioid epidemic in the United States</span> Ongoing overuse of opioid medication in the US

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"Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics" is the title of a letter to the editor written by Jane Porter and Hershel Jick and published in the January 10, 1980, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The letter analyzed data on patients who had been treated with opioids in a hospital setting, and concluded that addiction was uncommon among such patients. It has since been frequently misrepresented to claim that opioids are not addictive when prescribed for use at home. This misrepresentation has been blamed for contributing to the opioid epidemic in the United States.

Massachusetts v. Purdue is a lawsuit filed on August 14, 2018, suing the Stamford, Connecticut-based company Purdue Pharma LP, which created and manufactures OxyContin, "one of the most widely used and prescribed opioid drugs on the market", and Purdue's owners, the Sacklers accusing them of "widespread fraud and deception in the marketing of opioids, and contributing to the opioid crisis, the nationwide epidemic that has killed thousands." Purdue denied the allegations.

Barry Meier is a writer and former New York Times journalist who wrote the 2003 non-fiction book Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death. His articles "have led to Congressional hearings and changes in federal laws".

The Sackler family is an American family who owned the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and later founded Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical drugs, including OxyContin. Purdue Pharma has been criticized for its role in the opioid epidemic in the United States. They have been described as the "most evil family in America", and "the worst drug dealers in history".

P.A.I.N. is an advocacy organization founded by artist Nan Goldin to respond to the opioid crisis, specifically targeting the Sackler Family for manufacturing, promoting, and distributing the drug Oxycontin through their corporation Purdue Pharma LP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the opioid epidemic</span>

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<i>Dopesick</i> (miniseries) 2021 American drama miniseries

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<i>The Crime of the Century</i> (2021 film) American documentary film

The Crime of the Century is an American two-part documentary film, directed, produced, and written by Alex Gibney. The film follows the opioid epidemic in the United States, and the political operatives, government regulations and corporations that enable the abuse of opioids, particularly the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.

Joss Sackler is a fashion designer. She is also known for her marriage to David Sackler, whose father Richard Sackler was the chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, and oversaw its manufacturing of the highly addictive opioid Oxycontin, a leading drug in the opioid epidemic.

Curtis Wright IV is an American former government official known for his role in the Food and Drug Administration's approval of OxyContin for Purdue Pharma in 1995, followed by his subsequent employment by the company, which led to portrayals in films and reports in nonfiction books, magazines, and news media outlets of his alleged role as one of the key figures in the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Wright was implicated in a criminal conspiracy outlined in a 2006 United States Department of Justice review document that was first made public in Purdue Pharma's 2019 bankruptcy proceedings. Although that case was settled in a 2007 plea agreement deal, members of United States Congress have requested the full 2006 documentation from the Department of Justice with the goal of opening a new case based upon the evidence then gathered. Parts of Wright's sworn depositions in 2003 and 2018 have internal contradictions and differ from documentary evidence described the 2003–2006 U.S. Federal Government investigation into Purdue Pharma.

Painkiller is an American drama television miniseries created by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. Based on Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker article "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain" and Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier, the series focuses on the birth of the opioid crisis, with an emphasis on Purdue Pharma, the company owned by Richard Sackler and his family that was the manufacturer of OxyContin. The Sackler family has been described as the "most evil family in America", and "the worst drug dealers in history".

Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.,, is a pending United States Supreme Court case regarding Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. This case is about the settlement by Purdue Pharmaceutical for Opioid victims who overdosed with the OxyContin drug produced by their company.

References

  1. ↑ "Richard S. Sackler 03/10/1945 1-203-869-2565". Registered Voters in the State of Connecticut, U.S.A. as of 10 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Glazek, Christopher (October 16, 2017). "The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis". Esquire. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Keefe, Patrick Radden (October 23, 2017). "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  4. ↑ "OxyContin® (oxycodone HCl) Extended-Release Tablets | Official Site for Patients & Caregivers". Oxycontin.com. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Wolf, Zachary B. (September 2, 2021). "The worst drug dealers in history are getting away with billions". CNN News .
  6. ↑ Lelchuk, Saul (September 2, 2021). "Are the Sacklers the Most Evil Family in American History?". The Bulwark .
  7. ↑ Smith, David (December 11, 2021). "OxyContin and the story behind America's 'most evil' family". Irish Examiner .
  8. ↑ Walters, Joanna (December 17, 2020). "'An evil family': Sacklers condemned as they refuse to apologize for role in opioid crisis". The Guardian .
  9. ↑ "Some members of Sackler family under fire over ties to opioids - CBS News". CBS News . April 11, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Richard Stephen Sackler - Personal Appointments (Napp Pharmaceuticals)". Companies House . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Richard Stephen Sackler - Personal Appointments (Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation)". Companies House. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  12. ↑ Sales, Ben. "Who are the Sacklers, the family at the center of the opioid crisis?". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Board of Advisors - Richard S. Sackler". Koch Institute (MIT) . Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  14. 1 2 "A family, and a transformative legacy". Medicine@Yale. 10 (2). August 2014. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  15. 1 2 Armstrong, David (May 12, 2016). "Richard Sackler, the man at the center of secret OxyContin files". Stat . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  16. ↑ Meier, Barry (January 15, 2019). "Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate". The New York Times . Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  17. 1 2 Meier, Barry (January 31, 2019). "Sackler Scion's Email Reveals Push for High-Dose OxyContin, New Lawsuit Disclosures Claim". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  18. 1 2 ProPublica. "Watch 8-hour Deposition Of Richard Sackler As He Denies Family's Role in The Opioid Crisis". YouTube. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  19. ↑ Dwyer, Colin (June 13, 2018). "Massachusetts Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma, Saying It 'Peddled Falsehoods'". NPR. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ Willmsen, Christine; Bebinger, Martha (January 16, 2019). "Massachusetts Attorney General Implicates Family Behind Purdue Pharma In Opioid Deaths". NPR.
  21. ↑ Jordan, Dearbail (March 22, 2019). "Is this America's most hated family?". BBC News.
  22. ↑ "Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Purdue Pharma L.P., Purdue Pharma Inc., Richard Sackler, ... First Amended Complaint and Jury Demand" (PDF). Mass.gov. p. 104.
  23. ↑ "Brothers follow parents' example to help fight cancer". Medicine@Yale. 5 (5). November 2009. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
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