Report: billionaire Sackler family, accused of encouraging the opioid epidemic

Report: billionaire Sackler family, accused of encouraging the opioid epidemic

  • September 11, 2018
Table of Contents

Report: billionaire Sackler family, accused of encouraging the opioid epidemic

The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, which created the infamous opioid painkiller OxyContin Richard Sackler and his billionaire family, who have been blamed for fosteringthe nation’s ongoing opioid epidemic, owna second pharmaceutical company. The Sacklers are the owners of Purdue Pharma, which created the addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin. But the family alsoowna second company based in Rhode Island, Rhodes Pharma, according to a Financial Times report released Sunday.

Rhodes Pharma is of one of the largest creators of off-patent generic opioids. The company produces several opioid-based painkillers that contain addictive drugs including oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine. Rhodes Pharma was started in 2007, according to companyregistration documents obtained by the Financial Times.

Purdue Pharma and Rhodes Pharma combined were responsible for 14.4 million opioid prescriptions in theU.S. The Sacklers are worth a combined$13 billion, according to a 2016 Forbes report. Thevast majority of their wealth, shared among 20 family members, is derived fromdrug-making. Purdue Pharma has faced hundreds of lawsuits over the years for fueling the opioid epidemic.

More than 63,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2016, of which 66 percent were related to opioid use. The lawsuit also said Purdue Pharma’s marketing not only “exaggerated the benefits” of the medication but the company also told medical practitioners that they were in jeopardy of violating theHippocratic Oath if they didn’t treat patients suffering from certain conditions with opioids.

Source: newsweek.com

Tags :
Share :
comments powered by Disqus

Related Posts

Human blood cells transformed into functional neurons

Human blood cells transformed into functional neurons

Human immune cells in blood can be converted directly into functional neurons in the laboratory in about three weeks with the addition of just four proteins, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found. The conversion occurs with relatively high efficiency — generating as many as 50,000 neurons from 1 milliliter of blood — and it can be achieved with fresh or previously frozen and stored blood samples, which vastly enhances opportunities for the study of neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. A paper describing the findings was published online June 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read More
Newly Found Enzymes Can Help Turn Type A and B Blood into Universal Type O

Newly Found Enzymes Can Help Turn Type A and B Blood into Universal Type O

Read More
New anti-cancer drugs put cancers to sleep—permanently

New anti-cancer drugs put cancers to sleep—permanently

In a world first, Melbourne scientists have discovered a new type of anti-cancer drug that can put cancer cells into a permanent sleep, without the harmful side-effects caused by conventional cancer therapies. Published today in the journal Nature, the research reveals the first class of anti-cancer drugs that work by putting the cancer cell to sleep – arresting tumour growth and spread without damaging the cells’ DNA. The new class of drugs could provide an exciting alternative for people with cancer, and has already shown great promise in halting cancer progression in models of blood and liver cancers, as well as in delaying cancer relapse.

Read More