Richard Sackler is a millionaire businessman from the United States. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College and his MD from New York University School of Medicine, he joined the Sackler family business, Purdue Pharma (a private pharmaceutical corporation), in 1971.
He was working with his father, Raymond, the company’s president, and held positions such as head of research and development and director of marketing at the time.
When Purdue Pharma pushed for OxyContin to replace the painkiller MS Contin in 1990, he managed the development department and promoted the misleading narrative that opioids were not highly addictive.
After obtaining FDA approval in 1995, Sackler persuaded officials that the medicine was less addictive than other painkillers on the market, even though no studies on how addictive OxyContin was or how likely it was to be abused were undertaken during the approval process.
You can now watch never-before-seen videos of Purdue Pharma’s Richard Sackler as he defends his company’s marketing of #OxyContin.
Full story here: https://t.co/5xSdqVs0Fy pic.twitter.com/IE6OVCGyBH— STAT (@statnews) September 5, 2019
Furthermore, opiates have been known for decades for their highly addictive qualities. He was appointed president of the corporation in 1999.
Where is Richard Sackler Now?
Purdue Pharma declared bankruptcy in 2019 due to a slew of litigation claims. The firm and its owners, the Sackler family, were then forced to pay $6 billion to several states to resolve a lawsuit in 2022.
It was reported that the family, worth $13 billion at the time, would have to pay at least $5.5 billion in cash to establish opioid addiction treatment centers.
However, early this year (despite the massive lawsuits filed against him and his family), Richard Sackler vehemently disputed that he, his family, or his pharmaceutical company were to blame for the deadly epidemic.
As of 2023, he had sold $30 million worth of property, ranging from Austin, Texas, to Florida and Beverly Hills. All because of the lawsuits and scandals, which he and his family were embroiled.
Sackler, along with his now-ex-wife, Beth, with whom he has three children, Rebecca, Marianna, and David, has a charitable foundation called the ‘Sackler Trust,’ which has been “supporting research and education charities across the UK since 2010.”
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For almost 4 years, Jason Martin has been a freelance writer for newspapers, journals, blogs, books, and online material. He covers the most recent news as well as many other topics.