Purdue-owning Sackler family own second opioid drug maker, FT reveals

pharmafile | September 10, 2018 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, opioid, opioid crisis, sackler 

The billionaire Sackler family, the owners of OxyContin drugmaker Purdue Pharma, have been revealed to own a second opioid drug producing company, according to the Financial Times.

The Sackler family, descendants of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, first gained notoriety for their ownership of the opioid drugmaker Purdue Pharma. Despite their philanthropy, which has seen the Sackler name adorn a library in Oxford, a bridge in Kew Gardens and a gallery in London, along with a number of other prestigious and high profile locations in both the United Kingdom and the United States, the secretive Anglo-American dynasty have become infamous for the role they played in the opioid crisis which has devastated large tracts of America. 

However the Sackler family have now been revealed to own a little known generic drug manufacturer Rhodes Pharma, based in the small town of Coventry, Rhode Island. The family’s links to Rhodes Pharma, a company that is among the largest producers of generic opioids in the United States, adds further credence to the Sackler’s role in fuelling the opioid epidemic which caused more than 40,000 deaths in 2016 alone.

The revelation that the Sackler’s own Rhodes Pharmaceuticals links the business owning family to a total of 6% of all opioid prescriptions in the United States. As such, Purdue Pharma and Rhodes Pharma together, come seventh in regards to total opioid market share.

“This further debunks the Sackler family’s whole claim that they are not responsible for the crisis. They have always said, ‘Why is everyone picking on us, we’re only 2 per cent of prescriptions?” said Andrew Kolodny, a professor at Brandeis University and an expert on the opioid epidemic.

Louis Goss

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