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A review by kathywadolowski
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
5.0
I loved Patrick Radden Keefe's "Say Nothing," so I had very high expectations for his next narrative non-fiction entry. And on this front, "Empire of Pain" definitely did not disappoint.
Oh my GOD do I hate the Sacklers. I, like absolutely everyone else in the universe, didn't really know much about them except for the fact that their name was being stripped from famous institutions due to their nebulous OxyContin connection. This book puts a magnifying glass right on the family versus the drug business (though there's PLENTY of that included as well), and wow is it an infuriating ride.
We start with the first generation Sackler brothers who, like the Lehman brothers, start a booming business (really businesses) from the ground up. They seem to lack some morals, but you can at least respect the fact that they truly built their name and worked for everything they got. They are not the humanitarians they want to be perceived as, but they (especially Arthur) put in work. I was shocked to learn that Arthur essentially *invented* the business of drug marketing, which is I think pretty universally recognized as one of a million major problems in the U.S. healthcare system. It was revolutionary, but also an early look at how the family would come to negatively impact the entire country. Heavy stuff.
Like I said, the three brothers were flawed and lacked empathy, but you can't deny the work they put in to build their empire and their fortune. Once we got to the second and third-generation Sacklers, that's when I genuinely began to lose it. They're all spoiled and entitled, and I think need to believe that their family hasn't done any wrong just to live with themselves and their name. But the reality is, as Radden Keefe reveals, the Sacklers on paper (and probably in heart and soul too) have pretty much always known that they're wronging so many innocents who just want pain relief. Yes, people will take advantage and become addicted; but the way they demonized and discarded addicts who they created was just monstrous and unforgivable. And the way the family (beginning with Arthur, even though he was not alive for the advent of OxyContin) obfuscated its involvement with the drug industry as a whole is all the proof I need (though not a court, apparently) to tell me they knew they were in the wrong. So disgusting, and even more infuriating that they could essentially buy immunity from legal ramifications.
The history of OxyContin (and its relationship to MS Contin, a pill form of morphine with a time-release "Contin" coating) was surprisingly interesting to me, especially the deep dive into how public perception of morphine (as an end-of-life, last-resort drug) actually made Oxy more dangerous—because it led the family (the company, but really the family) to market Oxy as totally safe and less potent in comparison. A LIE!!! FOR SALES!!!! It's frightening how easily the FDA and oversight committees could be both misled and just corrupted, and frustrating how this can't be 100% proven even though we all know it's true.
Drug-making and its overlap with sales is a scourge on the country and a risk to so so many, and reading this book informed and increased my cynicism about the agencies who are supposedly working for the greater good ~to help people~. When money is at stake, you can't trust anyone else to have your true interests at heart. And the scary thing is, when it comes to health and doctor-recommended treatment, how many choices do we really have?
I'm so grateful to journalists and writers like Radden Keefe, who are willing to devote so much time and risk their reputations and even their well-being to expose wrongdoing on this scale. I know it can't be easy, but hard-to-read stories like these are so necessary to hold our leaders to account. Maybe not right now, but eventually I have to believe the Sacklers will get all that's coming to them beyond just a loss of reputation.
Oh my GOD do I hate the Sacklers. I, like absolutely everyone else in the universe, didn't really know much about them except for the fact that their name was being stripped from famous institutions due to their nebulous OxyContin connection. This book puts a magnifying glass right on the family versus the drug business (though there's PLENTY of that included as well), and wow is it an infuriating ride.
We start with the first generation Sackler brothers who, like the Lehman brothers, start a booming business (really businesses) from the ground up. They seem to lack some morals, but you can at least respect the fact that they truly built their name and worked for everything they got. They are not the humanitarians they want to be perceived as, but they (especially Arthur) put in work. I was shocked to learn that Arthur essentially *invented* the business of drug marketing, which is I think pretty universally recognized as one of a million major problems in the U.S. healthcare system. It was revolutionary, but also an early look at how the family would come to negatively impact the entire country. Heavy stuff.
Like I said, the three brothers were flawed and lacked empathy, but you can't deny the work they put in to build their empire and their fortune. Once we got to the second and third-generation Sacklers, that's when I genuinely began to lose it. They're all spoiled and entitled, and I think need to believe that their family hasn't done any wrong just to live with themselves and their name. But the reality is, as Radden Keefe reveals, the Sacklers on paper (and probably in heart and soul too) have pretty much always known that they're wronging so many innocents who just want pain relief. Yes, people will take advantage and become addicted; but the way they demonized and discarded addicts who they created was just monstrous and unforgivable. And the way the family (beginning with Arthur, even though he was not alive for the advent of OxyContin) obfuscated its involvement with the drug industry as a whole is all the proof I need (though not a court, apparently) to tell me they knew they were in the wrong. So disgusting, and even more infuriating that they could essentially buy immunity from legal ramifications.
The history of OxyContin (and its relationship to MS Contin, a pill form of morphine with a time-release "Contin" coating) was surprisingly interesting to me, especially the deep dive into how public perception of morphine (as an end-of-life, last-resort drug) actually made Oxy more dangerous—because it led the family (the company, but really the family) to market Oxy as totally safe and less potent in comparison. A LIE!!! FOR SALES!!!! It's frightening how easily the FDA and oversight committees could be both misled and just corrupted, and frustrating how this can't be 100% proven even though we all know it's true.
Drug-making and its overlap with sales is a scourge on the country and a risk to so so many, and reading this book informed and increased my cynicism about the agencies who are supposedly working for the greater good ~to help people~. When money is at stake, you can't trust anyone else to have your true interests at heart. And the scary thing is, when it comes to health and doctor-recommended treatment, how many choices do we really have?
I'm so grateful to journalists and writers like Radden Keefe, who are willing to devote so much time and risk their reputations and even their well-being to expose wrongdoing on this scale. I know it can't be easy, but hard-to-read stories like these are so necessary to hold our leaders to account. Maybe not right now, but eventually I have to believe the Sacklers will get all that's coming to them beyond just a loss of reputation.