Purdue Pharmaceutical

And the Sackler Family who owned it and created the drug OxyContin

Most Americans are quite aware of the Opoid crisis in America, but few know how it began and later became the crisis it is today. Following are links that tell the story…

First, there are two excellent television miniseries’, Painkiller on Netflix, and the Hulu miniseries Dopesick. Both are well worth viewing.

Business Insider wrote an excellent piece about the Sacklers titled About the Sackler Family. They are a sick bunch who cared only about insane profits even at the expense of the lives of those who became addicted to this highly-addictive drug.

Richard Sackler was the driving force behind the illegal marketing of the drug. You can read about him by clicking the image below.

Here is an Axios piece that provides an overview of Richard Sackler’s involvement in Purdue Pharma’s marketing of the drug.

And, finally, here is an excellent piece titled After years of pain, opioid crisis victims confront Sackler family in court

In all, the Sackler Family made $10-$12 Billion on a highly-addictive drug which they successfully marketed by, among other things, bribing and then hiring 18 months later, the FDA bureaucrat responsible for approving the drug.

Despite multiple lawsuits by several states and the US government, the Sacklers avoided any legal fallout from their highly-illegal activities by bribing - through various settlements - government officials. And, incredibly, “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani was one of the Sacklers’ lawyers, and the one who worked a backroom deal with the US Justice Department to allow Purdue Pharma to skate free by admitting to only one count of “mislabeling” OcyContin.

The Sacklers walked away with billions of dollars and OcyContin is still available as a prescribed painkiller. Several of the Sackler family members are involved in charitable causes to this day, but they can’t whitewash their family’s involvement in criminal activity which destroyed hundreds of thousands of families and resulted in thousands of deaths worldwide.

So much for justice…

The Liberator

P.S. If you’re a glutton for punishment you can watch the 8-hour deposition of Richard Sackler here.