Sackler family

Sackler family

The Sackler family are known for founding and owning the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma. The Sackler name, as used in institutions which the family have donated to, saw increased scrutiny in the late 2010s over the family’s association with OxyContin. In March 2019, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate galleries announced they would not accept further donations from the family.

About Sackler family in brief

Summary Sackler familyThe Sackler family is an American family, many of whom are known for founding and owning the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma. Purdue Pharma, and by extension some members of the family, have faced criticism and lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical drugs, including Oxycontin. The family was first listed in Forbes list of America’s Richest Families in 2015. The Sackler name, as used in institutions which the family have donated to, saw increased scrutiny in the late 2010s over the family’s association with OxyContin. In March 2019, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate galleries announced that they would not accept further donations from the family.

Nan Goldin, an American photographer, threatened to withdraw a planned retrospective of her work if the gallery accepted a £1 million donation from a Sackler fund. In June 2019, NYU Langone Medical Center announced they will no longer be accepting donations from any of the Sacklers that were involved in Purdue Pharma on July 1, 2019. Later in 2019 the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, each announced they won’t accept any future donations from future Sacklers from any future years.