Empire of pain the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
Presents a portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, who built their fortune on the sale of Valium and later sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis.
| Main Author: | Keefe, Patrick Radden, 1976- (Author) |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Doubleday,
[2021]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: |
Presents a portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, who built their fortune on the sale of Valium and later sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis. 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 |
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| Physical Description: |
xii, 535 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-515) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780385545686 0385545681 9780385697545 0385697546 |
| Author Notes: |
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