Bibliograph

Empire of pain, the secret history of the Sackler dynasty, Patrick Radden Keefe

Type

Label

Empire of pain, the secret history of the Sackler dynasty, Patrick Radden Keefe

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages [446]-515) and index

resource.biographical

collective biography

Illustrations

genealogical tablesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Empire of pain

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Patrick Radden Keefe

Sub title

the secret history of the Sackler dynasty

Summary

The Sacklers 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. Keefe begins with the three doctor brothers, Raymond, Mortimer and Arthur, who weathered the poverty of the Great Depression and appalling anti-Semitism. Working at a barbaric mental institution, Arthur conducted groundbreaking research into drug treatments, devised the marketing for Valium, and built the first great Sackler fortune. Forty years later the template he created to sell Valium was employed to launch a far more potent product: OxyContin. -- adapted from jacket

resource.variantTitle

Secret history of the Sackler dynasty

Classification