A little-known court document sheds light on the family feud over the multibillion-dollar painkiller’s association with the opioid crisis.
By David Armstrong
By David Armstrong
This story was co-published with The Atlantic.
Much as the role of the addictive multibillion-dollar painkiller
OxyContin in the opioid crisis has stirred controversy and rancor
nationwide, so it has divided members of the wealthy and philanthropic
Sackler family, some of whom own the company that makes the drug.
In recent months, as protesters have begun pressuring the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and other cultural
institutions to spurn donations from the Sacklers, one branch of the
family has moved aggressively to distance itself from OxyContin and its
manufacturer, Purdue Pharma. The widow and one daughter of Arthur
Sackler, who owned a related Purdue company with his two brothers,
maintain that none of his heirs have profited from sales of the drug.
The daughter, Elizabeth Sackler, told The New York Times in January that Purdue Pharma’s involvement in the opioid epidemic was “morally abhorrent to me.”
Arthur died eight years before OxyContin hit the marketplace. His
widow, Jillian Sackler, and Elizabeth Sackler, who is Jillian’s
step-daughter, are represented by separate public relations firms and
have successfully won clarifications and corrections from media outlets
for suggesting that sales of the potent opioid enriched Arthur Sackler
or his family.
But an obscure court document
sheds a different light on family history — and on the campaign by
Arthur’s relatives to preserve their image and legacy. It shows that the
Purdue family of companies made a nearly $20 million payment to the
estate of Arthur Sackler in 1997 — two years after OxyContin was
approved, and just as the pill was becoming a big seller. As a result,
though they do not profit from present-day sales, Arthur’s heirs appear
to have benefited at least indirectly from OxyContin.
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Source: ProPublica
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