This is only one of several books discussing the opioid crisis in the United States but is undoubtedly the most detailed with a laser focus on the Sackler family and their Perdue Pharma. The extensively researched documentation begins with Dr. Arthur Sackler Sr. in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. A New York physician and researcher in psychiatry at an asylum, he was also an astute adman and entrepreneur, amassing a fortune, largely by making false claims for the value and safety of chlorpromazine (Thorazine), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), and diazepam (Valium) by his ad agency on behalf of Roche Pharmaceuticals. These were among the first drugs to be promoted directly to the public at large, with a focus for the latter two on anxious or depressed housewives. (“Mother’s little helper.”). He published a medical news magazine without being identified with it, promoting products that benefited him financially. He was also the first of the many Sackler’s to become a major philanthropist donating Chinese antique treasures to Columbia University and to museums, currying goodwill. He was sly, and secretive founding many corporations to hide his self-dealing and evade prosecution. Many more unflattering adjectives are applicable to him including dishonest, driven, egotistical, philandering, ruthless, scheming and misogynistic.
His now deceased sons, Arthur Jr., Mortimer, and Raymond, all doctors as well, are portrayed as equally evil with the development of the slow-release opioid pain-killers, MS Contin (morphine) and OxyContin (oxycodone). They knowingly marketed them aggressively to practitioners as non-addictive and lasting 12 hours, thereby avoiding the craving between doses. But their effects usually lasted only eight hours, inducing the craving that leads to abuse. With OxyContin that craving led many users to crush it to snort or inject and then switch to street heroin or fentanyl. When the patent was about to expire they reformulated it to extend the patent and beat out generic competitors and later secretly under the name Rhodes Pharmaceutical marketed their own generic oxycodone under the name RP-10 oxycodone. They deceived some regulators at the FDA, bribed others, and hired still others, in the well-known Washington revolving door phenomenon that includes politicians, businessmen, doctors, consultants, and most notably, lawyers. The more independent CDC has done more to alert the public about the opioid epidemic than has the FDA.
The next generation of Sacklers, lead by Richard, adamantly refused to acknowledge any blame for the opioid overdose epidemic that has killed more than one million Americans- until 2019, when they faced hundreds of lawsuits brought by the feds, states attorneys-generals, and the families of victims. They tried to blame the victims as morally weak, and play the victim role themselves-victims of a biased liberal media, comparing themselves to gun manufacturers, pointing out that guns do not kill people, people do. There is certainly a tendency for greedy, hypocritical, self-righteous libertarians to look down on addicts as morally inferior beings rather than as victims of a powerful system that prey on and benefit from their weakness.
The Sackler’s continued to enjoy high society esteem as generous philanthropists donating to at least 20 institutions and attaching their names to a whole wing of the Met, a library at Harvard and a medical school in Tel Aviv.
As revelations of the main source of their billions were uncovered, and lawsuits and legal fees mounted, a confusing mix of deals were agreed to. Charges against everyone except the Sackler’s were pursued, with state attorney’s-general often striking deals over the head of lead prosecutors. Finally in 2019 founding company Perdue Frederick, but not Perdue Pharma, was allowed to declare bankruptcy, but no Sackler was charged and they and Perdue Pharma escaped with many billion dollars. They continue selling OxyCodone through their Rhodes Pharmaceutical generic company and expanded their market of it internationally in 2015 with another company named MundiPharma, using the same dubious marketing strategy.
To be fair, Sackler doctors are not the only unscrupulous medics in this sordid business, as many others in so-called pill mills prescribe OxyContin on request and are rewarded by Sacklers who seldom report this obvious criminal activity. And other pharmaceuticals are far from blameless in this business. Jansen, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary, expanded their 100,000 acre Tasmanian poppy operation to ensure a steady supply of opioids, as the market expanded. It seems that the Arthur Jr. wing of the Sackler dynasty has largely distanced itself from the opioid business and are feuding with the others. And most institutions have refused donations from them and removed their names from the donated wings. But they must have significant control over the internet information about their continuing sources of billions. There was nothing negative about Perdue in most search engine initial returns when I searched MundiPharma and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals.
During my days as a medical practitioner, I treated many narcotic addicts, but never prescribed OxyContin and, perhaps in error, like to think my prescription of narcotics was always appropriate. I did once have a prescription pad stolen from my office.
A simplified family tree of three generations of Sackler’s would have been a useful reference aid for readers like me who often have difficulty keeping characters straight.
This dismal documentary about wealth and greed is more detailed than most readers could possibly need or appreciate. A simplified account of these nefarious deeds is a part of the equally lengthy work in Gerald Posner’s book, Pharma.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/10.
Thanks, Stuck in a Book.
The Passionate Reader 