NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing, as featured in the HBO documentary Crime of the Century.ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SUMMER 2021 READING LIST The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis.
Empire of Pain begins with the story of three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and the incalculably energetic Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur saw a better way and conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments. He also had a genius for marketing, especially for pharmaceuticals, and bought a small ad firm.Arthur devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. He purchased a drug manufacturer, Purdue Frederick, which would be run by Raymond and Mortimer. The brothers began collecting art, and wives, and grand residences in exotic locales. Their children and grandchildren grew up in luxury.Forty years later, Raymond’s son Richard ran the family-owned Purdue. The template Arthur Sackler created to sell Valium—co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug’s addictiveness—was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. The drug went on to generate some thirty-five billion dollars in revenue, and to launch a public health crisis in which hundreds of thousands would die. This is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.
Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama—baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful.
Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe is a meticulously researched and deeply disturbing account of the Sackler family, the wealthy clan behind the opioid crisis. Keefe takes readers on a journey through the family's rise to power, from their modest beginnings in Brooklyn to their control of Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactured and marketed the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Along the way, he exposes the Sacklers' ruthless business practices, their manipulation of the medical community, and their relentless pursuit of profit, even as their drug caused addiction, overdose deaths, and widespread suffering.
Keefe's narrative is a damning indictment of the Sacklers and their role in the opioid crisis. He meticulously documents the family's history of deception, greed, and indifference to human suffering. He shows how they used their wealth and influence to pressure doctors into prescribing OxyContin, even when they knew it was addictive. He also exposes the Sacklers' efforts to suppress research that linked OxyContin to addiction and overdose deaths.
Empire of Pain is a powerful and important book that shines a light on one of the darkest chapters in American history. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the opioid crisis and the Sacklers' role in it.
Here are some of the key themes explored in Empire of Pain:
- The Sacklers' relentless pursuit of profit: The Sacklers were driven by a single-minded desire for wealth. They were willing to sacrifice anything, including the health and well-being of millions of people, to achieve their goals.
- The Sacklers' manipulation of the medical community: The Sacklers used their wealth and influence to pressure doctors into prescribing OxyContin, even when they knew it was addictive. They also funded research that downplayed the risks of the drug and exaggerated its benefits.
- The Sacklers' efforts to suppress research linking OxyContin to addiction and overdose deaths: The Sacklers knew that OxyContin was addictive and deadly, but they did everything they could to suppress this information. They funded studies that downplayed the risks of the drug and pressured doctors not to report overdose deaths.
- The Sacklers' indifference to human suffering: The Sacklers were aware of the devastating impact that OxyContin was having on individuals, families, and communities, but they refused to take responsibility for their actions. They continued to market the drug aggressively, even as it was causing widespread addiction and overdose deaths.
Empire of Pain is a powerful and disturbing book that exposes the Sacklers' greed, deception, and indifference to human suffering. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the opioid crisis and the Sacklers' role in it.
