Raymond Sackler | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1920-02-16)February 16, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 17, 2017(2017-07-17) (aged 97) Greenwich,Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | New York University (BS) Middlesex University (MD) |
| Occupation(s) | Physician and entrepreneur |
| Known for | Purdue Pharma |
| Spouse | Beverly Feldman |
| Children | 2, includingRichard |
| Relatives |
|
| Family | Sackler |
Raymond Sackler (February 16, 1920 – July 17, 2017)[1] was an American physician and businessman. He acquiredPurdue Pharma together with his brothersArthur M. Sackler andMortimer Sackler. Purdue Pharma is the developer ofOxyContin, the drug at the center of theopioid epidemic in the United States.[2][3][4]
Sackler and his family have been linked to the rise of direct pharmaceutical marketing and theopioid crisis.[3] TheSackler family's philanthropy has been characterized asreputation laundering from profits acquired from the selling of opiates.[5][6]
Born inBrooklyn, New York, in 1920 to a Jewish family, Sackler was educated at Erasmus High School and attendedNew York University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1938. Due toJewish quotas imposed by the major U.S. medical schools during that era, he started his medical education atAnderson College of Medicine inGlasgow, Scotland, which he attended from 1938 to 1940.[7]
When World War II began, he stayed in Scotland and volunteered in the BritishHome Guard, and he also served as a plane spotter.[8] He returned to the U.S. and completed his studies atMiddlesex University School of Medicine (a school on the site of the present-dayBrandeis University inWaltham, Massachusetts), where he received his MD degree in 1944.
Sackler married Beverly Feldman in 1944. They had two sons,Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler. Beverly Sackler died on October 15, 2019, at the age of 95.[9]
Sackler was certified by theAmerican Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (P) in 1957, and was a Life Fellow of theAmerican Psychiatric Association.[10] Sackler, with his two brothers,Arthur andMortimer, co-founded theCreedmoor Institute for Psychobiological Studies in New York City, where they engaged in research in the psycho-biology of schizophrenia and manic depressive psychosis.
They received two awards from theMedical Society of the State of New York: the First Award for Scientific Research; and one year later, Honorable Mention for Scientific Research. In 1998, Sackler was awarded a Doctor of Law Honoris Causa from the University of Cambridge.[11]
With lessons learned in research, Sackler and his brother Mortimer transitioned into the development of numerous pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and research companies, Sackler being closely associated with the now global reach ofPurdue Pharma in the United States and Canada and Mundipharma, Ltd. in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Purdue Pharma, which is 100% privately owned and operated by the families of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, researched, developed, markets and distributes[3][2] the opiate drugOxycontin and related compounds.
A year prior to his death, Sackler was estimated byForbes to have a net worth of around $13 billion.[12]
On October 30, 2017,The New Yorker published a multi-page exposé on Raymond Sackler, Purdue Pharma, and the Sackler family.[3] The article links Raymond and Arthur Sackler's business acumen with the rise of direct pharmaceutical marketing and eventually to the rise of addiction to OxyContin in the United States. The article implies that Raymond Sackler bears moral responsibility for theopioid epidemic in the United States.[3]
In 2019, theNew York Times revealed that Sackler had told company officials in 2008 to "measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths."[13] This was verified by legally obtained documents tied to a new lawsuit filed in June 2018 by the Massachusetts attorney general,Maura Healey. The lawsuit claims thatPurdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction. Nonetheless, they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit. On February 1, 2019, Healey released unredacted documents showing that the Sacklers directed doctors to overprescribe the drug and listed doctors (under the code name "Region Zero") who overprescribed Oxycontin for the Sackler family's profit rather than patients' health.[14]
Sackler and his wife, Beverly, directly and through the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundations, initiated and sustained major research programs in the biomedical, biological, physical and engineering sciences throughendowments.[15] In support of the arts, the Sacklers were recognized by theBritish Museum (Raymond and Beverly Sackler Wing, the Ancient Near East and Egypt), theLouvre, and, together with his two brothers, the Sackler Wing (former) at theMetropolitan Museum of Art,[15] New York City, which houses theTemple of Dendur and study centers for Chinese and Japanese Art History.[citation needed] Many institutions have since distanced themselves from the family.[16]
Together with his brothers, in 1980 Sackler established doctoral educational programs at two US Universities: the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences atTufts University and the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences atNew York University School of Medicine. He and his wife Beverly established the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Medical Research Centre at theUniversity of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine (UK) and were sponsors at that medical school of the MD/PhD Program and a new cancer research program.[citation needed]
The Sackler Faculty of Medicine atTel Aviv University, sponsored conjointly with Sackler's two brothers in 1964, includes the Sackler School of Medicine, the Maurice and Gabriel Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler Institute of Molecular Medicine. These names were removed in 2023.[17]Still, the university's Faculty of Exact Sciences and School of Physics and Astronomy are named after Raymond and Beverly Sackler.Tel Aviv University also serves as the institutional sponsor of two prizes endowed by Sackler and his wife Beverly: The International Prize in Physical Sciences and The International Prize in Biophysics.[citation needed]
AtLeiden University in the Netherlands, Sackler supported the Laboratory for Astrophysics named after him.[citation needed] He also gave Leiden University an endowment for the establishment of the Raymond and Beverly Chair of American History.[citation needed] Sackler was the moving force, one of the founders, and oversaw the implementation of the Sackler School of Medicine New York State / American Program chartered by theNew York State Board of Regents that provides a four-year medical education program for American students at the Sackler School of Medicine of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.[citation needed]
In 2010, the Foundation established The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Science Fund in honor of Ralph J. Cicerone, at the National Academy of Sciences (USA) was established to provide support of scientific programs independent of governmental requests/funding.[citation needed]
In 2011, it established The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture Series in Neuroscience was established atCardiff University.[citation needed]
On December 9, 2021 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, along with the Sackler family, announced the removal of the Sackler family name from seven named galleries, including the wing that houses the iconic Temple of Dendur.[18] In 2022, the British Museum announced that it would rename the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Rooms and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Wing, as part of "development of the new masterplan", and that it "made this decision together through collaborative discussions" with the Sackler Foundation.[19]