There are no “Pablo Escobar” or “El Chapo Guzman” named buildings at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, but the disgraced billionaire Sackler family, partially responsible for the deadly US opioid epidemic, still has naming rights plastered all over the university.
Documents obtained by the Financial Times — including letters, bank statements, and event attendee lists between 2020-22 — show Oxford has yet to sever ties with the Sacklers despite their company, Purdue Pharma, reaching a deal with US states in bankruptcy court to funnel billions of dollars for addiction treatment programs.
Recall Purdue was the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin. The pharmaceutical company downplayed the drug’s addictive qualities that enriched the Sackler family by billions of dollars. But the cost was at the expense of blue-collar workers who became addicted to the drug and helped spark the opioid epidemic. Estimates show more than half a million Americans have died from opioid overdoses since 1999.