Behind the money owned by this Anglo American billionaire Sackler family, there is a firm called Purdue Pharma. The Pharma is responsible for opioids- a class of drugs linked to the deaths of thousand Americans.

This family’s fortune is estimated to be $13billion by Forbes Magazine. Thanks to the billions generated by Purdue and donated by the Sacklers, the family name can be found adorning a wing of the Louvre in Paris, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as well as the V&A, the Serpentine and Shakespeare’s Globe in London among many, many others.

Many people must be aware about that they have raging opioid epidemic in America. About 50,000 people died through opioid overdose last year. And there is one single family responsible for this huge crisis. The Sacklers emerged into fame mostly because of donating millions to the arts and higher education.

In 1996, Purdue Pharma invented OxyContin, a prescription painkiller with a slow release formula. OxyContin wouldn’t be that beneficial to the Sacklers if it was only prescribed at the end of life with cancer because end of life cancer pain is not that common and people won’t be on your drug for very long at the end of life. But doctors prescribed it for common problems of headache and back pains due to which they made huge amount through this drug. And the prescription opiods in thousands of household of America, this family was becoming exposed.

Andrew Kolodny, co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, says “That’s what they were doing with all of this money they were giving to museums and to universities,” he says. “Their wealth was earned through the sales of a drug similar to heroin”

Now it appears that the Sackler family and their Purdue Pharma company are being black listed. The company is facing numerous lawsuits as it is one of a number opioid manufacturers and distributors who are accused of using misleading marketing about the drug and downplaying concerns about abuse and addiction to encourage doctors to prescribe more of it. However, Purdue Pharma strongly denies the claims.