Monsters of Industry
How the Sackler family destroyed lives in pursuit of profit and power.
Continuing the theme of business ethics from our last blog on McKinsey & Company’s complicit behavior with Purdue Pharma, we now examine Purdue Pharma itself, a pharmaceutical company founded by the Sackler family, ground zero for the opioid crisis that devastated individuals, families, and communities across the United States.
The company's flagship product, OxyContin, a potent prescription painkiller, led to widespread addiction, overdose deaths, and the destruction of countless lives. Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family recently faced a landmark settlement, agreeing to a historic $7.4 billion fine. The Sacklers will relinquish control of the company, formalizing its bankruptcy. While substantial, this penalty does little to reverse the damage caused by Purdue’s aggressive marketing practices, a lack of business ethics, and a corporate culture driven by greed [1].
Purdue Pharma, founded in 1892, became a household name after the introduction of OxyContin in 1996. The drug, which contains a time-released form of oxycodone, was marketed as a breakthrough treatment for chronic pain, offering relief with a lower risk of addiction. However, the company’s claims were misleading, and Purdue Pharma aggressively promoted OxyContin to doctors, often downplaying its addictive potential. By the early 2000s, OxyContin was a highly profitable product, bringing in billions of dollars in sales [2].
Despite mounting evidence of OxyContin’s addictive properties, Purdue and the Sacklers continued their misleading marketing strategies. They incentivized doctors with lavish gifts, expensive trips, and speaking fees, encouraging them to prescribe OxyContin inappropriately. Purdue Pharma also targeted rural areas and working-class communities, where the drug could be distributed widely with little oversight. As a result, OxyContin became the gateway to addiction for many people, with users transitioning to heroin and other opioids as the supply of prescription pills dried up.
The Sackler family’s involvement in Purdue Pharma raises serious questions about corporate responsibility and business ethics. The family’s wealth and power were built on a product that, in hindsight, should have been marketed with greater caution. Internal documents, revealed during lawsuits and investigations, show how the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma executives were aware of the widespread abuse of OxyContin and failed to take meaningful action to stop it.
In 2025, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to pay a staggering $7.4 billion in fines and restitution. The Sacklers previously managed to protect their personal wealth, but this will change now that they no longer have liability protection from future lawsuits.
This is yet another glaring example of corporate greed and ethical failure. The company’s reckless promotion of OxyContin contributed to the addiction, overdose, and death of nearly a generation [3], and the Sacklers’ focus on profit over public health exacerbated the crisis. Their family’s name will forever be associated with one of the most devastating public health crises in modern history. While they portrayed themselves as captains of industry, the Sacklers instead became monsters of industry. The true measure of accountability, however, will be seen in how the $7.4 billion is responsibly distributed over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs.
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