At one point last year his house in Hudson Valley, New York was being staked out by a private investigator. Their lawyers were less diffident: the cease and desist letters started before he’d typed a word, and continue to this day. Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker, conducted hundreds of interviews, tracking down former housekeepers, doormen and even a yoga instructor, though the Sacklers themselves proved resistant to his approaches. At issue is exactly how Purdue Pharma, which the family have declared bankrupt, and its owners will be held accountable – with a ruling due soon.Īs with his previous books, The Snakehead, about Chinese gangs and people smuggling in New York and Say Nothing, about The Troubles in Northern Ireland (also his podcast Wind of Change, about The Scorpions and the CIA) Empire of Pain is formidably reported. More than 2,500 lawsuits against the Sacklers are currently pending. Sackler was also a marketing genius who made his fortune in medical advertising and trade magazines for doctors.Įmpire of Pain arrives with great timing. It would go on to develop MS Contin – morphine with time-release properties – and Ox圜ontin. It finds its origin story in Arthur Sackler, who in 1952 arranges for his brothers to purchase Purdue Frederick, a medical company that sold staples like ear wax remover and laxatives.
In his new book, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, journalist and author Patrick Radden Keefe paints a devastating portrait of the secretive family who, over three generations, ruthlessly pursued profit over concern for human life. Even as they raked in billions – their wealth is estimated at $13bn – they were celebrated for their philanthropy, donating huge sums to museums and cultural institutions that named buildings and rooms after them: the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London the Sackler Wing at The Louvre in Paris. While public anger against Ox圜ontin’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, built quickly, for a long time the identity of the owners of the privately held company, the Sackler family, was not well known. According to the CDC nearly 500,000 Americans have died from overdoses related to it and other opioids. Despite only entering the market in 1996, the highly addictive painkiller has become the focus of a prescription drug epidemic. Ox圜ontin is one of the most notorious medicines in US history.
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