Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

When the state of Kentucky sued Purdue, “twenty nine percent of the county’s residents said that they or their family knew someone who had died from using OxyContin” in Pike County, where the trial was held (332). They sought to depose Richard Sackler who was by then living in Austin, Texas. Purdue’s new CEO, Mark Timney, was hoping to create a new norm—“less direct intervention in the company by the Sackler family” (333). Radden Keefe emphasizes that nonagenarian Raymond Sackler was well aware of the company’s policies around OxyContin sales, complicating any attempt to portray Richard as a lone villain. At Richard’s deposition, the prosecutor was surprised by Richard’s steadfast defense of his conduct and Purdue’s sales tactics. Purdue ultimately settled the case without admitting responsibility—a tactic it employed in multiple states.

The attempt to hide knowledge of wrongdoing became more difficult once the Los Angeles Times determined that Purdue kept a secret list of doctors and small clinics that prescribed massive amounts of OxyContin, using it to track sales rather than to cooperate with law enforcement. In 2014, the same newspaper unearthed that Purdue’s advertising about OxyContin was false—the drug “might not actually work for twelve hours” (339).