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Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty / Patrick Radden Keefe.

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

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780385545686
  • ISBN: 0385545681
  • Physical Description: xii, 535 pages : genealogical table ; 24 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Doubleday, 2021.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-515) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Prologue: The taproot -- Book I Patriarch. A good name ; The asylum ; Med man ; Penicillin for the blues ; China fever ; The octopus ; The Dendur derby ; Estrangement ; Ghost marks ; To thwart the inevitability of death -- Book II Dynasty. Apollo ; Heir apparent ; Matter of Sackler ; The ticking clock ; God of dreams ; H-bomb ; Sell, sell, sell ; Ann Hedonia ; The Pablo Escobar of the new millennium ; Take the fall -- Book III Legacy. Turks ; Tamperproof ; Ambassadors ; It's a hard truth, ain't it ; Temple of greed ; Warpath ; Named defendants ; The phoenix ; Un-naming -- Afterword.
Subject: Sackler family.
Sackler, Arthur M. > Family.
Rich people > United States > Biography.
Purdue Pharma L.P.
Pharmaceutical industry > Marketing.
Pharmaceutical industry > Corrupt practices.
Genre: Family histories.
Biographies.

Available copies

  • 33 of 37 copies available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 2 current holds with 37 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Albright Memorial Library 92 SACKLER (Text) 50686015716777 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Alexander Hamilton Memorial Free Library 929 KEE (Text) 37268003112794 AHMFL Adult Non-Fiction Available -
Altoona Area Public Library 929.20973 KEE (Text) 33240004948348 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Cambria County Library 929.209 K265e (Text) 85131001760231 CACM Non-Fiction Available -
Carbondale Public Library 92 SACKLER (Text) 50688010801034 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Dover Area Community Library Adults 929.2 KEE Nonfiction (Text) 34217000843326 Adult Area Available -
Emmaus Public Library 338.7 KEEF (Text) 36446002056029 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Huntingdon County Library NF 929.209 KEE (Text) 30298100564859 Nonfiction Available -
Indian Valley Public Library 929.209 Keefe Bus & Econ (Text) 39427103634663 Nonfiction Room: Adult Nonfiction Checked Out 04/08/2024
Joseph & Elizabeth Shaw Public Library 929.2 KEEFE (Text) 39636100429097 Adult Nonfiction Available -


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