The Sackler family saw Purdue Pharma officially cease operations this May, marking the conclusion of a bankruptcy process that forces the family to pay $7.4 billion in settlements while permanently barring them from the opioid business.
On On with Kara Swisher, host Kara Swisher reflected on the legacy of the Sackler family by recounting her visceral reaction to Empire of Pain, stating, "I am still incandescent after reading that book, I have to say. Not incandescent. Someone pointed out I wasn't using... I was furious." during her interview with author Patrick Radden Keefe.
The sentiment remains intensely negative, with Tina Brown noting the extreme difficulty in holding the family to account given their history of legal aggression. She observed, "In Empire of Pain, your book about the Sacklers, you were also, again, you know, extracting information from a world which is, was so litigious. I mean, there's nobody more difficult and scary than the Sackler" family.
As the first $1.5 billion installment of the settlement is processed, the focus shifts toward Knoa Pharma and whether the public benefit corporation structure can effectively distance the industry from the family's influence. Despite the legal finality, the podcast discourse suggests that the reputation of the Sackler family remains permanently tethered to the opioid crisis in the eyes of investigators and observers alike.
