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Richard Sackler

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Richard Sackler
Sackler in 2015
Born
Richard Stephen Sackler

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

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.

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

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. ^ a b c Glazek, Christopher (October 16, 2017). "The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis". Esquire. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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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