Sub-title: The Secret History of the Sackler Empire
This is the story of the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma and manufacturers of Oxycontin. Derived from the poppy flower, opium has been the scourge of people trying to escape pain for centuries. It's powerful effects lead to addiction and a guaranteed market for suppliers. Purdu
e made billions of dollars on the drug, inventing the aggressive marketing to physicians and extravagant bonuses to its sales force, never acknowledging its impact on the epidemic it created in the U.S. The author is an investigative journalist who spent several years researching and documenting the rise of the Sackler fortune.
His book tracks the three brothers born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents in the early 1900's, through their rise in New York society and around the world, becoming known for their philanthropy while keeping vague about the source of their fortune. It was an inside view of the attitudes, lifestyle and values of a very wealthy, privileged family living their own different view of reality.
There's detailed documentation of the inside correspondence of the company, the micro management carried out by the family members and the lawsuits brought against them.
It was depressing and appalling to see the lives destroyed and the total lack of any acceptance of responsibility or si accountability.
Quotes:
[They made an agreement] "that was known as a tontine, an antique investment instrument ..in which a number of participants band together in what is effectively a mortality lottery."
"Upton Sinclair wrote that a man has difficulty understanding something if his salary depends on him not understanding"
Published: 2021 Read: November 2024 Genre: History
