Opioid Billionaires
The Deceptive Marketing of OxyContin
Long insulated by their philanthropy, the Sackler family faces a growing backlash over the role of their company, Purdue Pharma, in spawning the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. ProPublica led this overdue reckoning. In a series of articles based on secret emails and documents obtained by reporter David Armstrong, we exposed the family’s participation in the aggressive marketing of Purdue's potent painkiller, OxyContin. ProPublica revealed Richard Sackler's backing of a company plan to mislead doctors about the strength of the drug, and ran a video of his deposition--the first chance for the public to see a family member questioned under oath. ProPublica also showed that the family tried to profit from treating the opioid addiction it fostered, and that OxyContin had a larger share of the opioid market than the company claimed.
