Colleges received millions from opioid maker owners

Prestigious universities around the world have accepted at least US$60 million over the past five years from the Sackler family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records show, write Collin Binkley and Jennifer McDermott for The Associated Press.

Some of the donations arrived before recent lawsuits blaming Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis. But at least nine universities accepted gifts in 2018 or later, when states and counties across the United States began efforts to hold members of the family accountable for Purdue Pharma’s actions. The largest gifts in that span went to Imperial College London, the University of Sussex and Yale University.

Major beneficiaries of Sackler family foundations also included the University of Oxford in England and Rockefeller, Cornell and Columbia universities in New York, according to tax and charity records reviewed by The Associated Press. In total, at least two dozen universities have received gifts from the family since 2013, ranging from US$25,000 to more than US$10 million, the records show.
Full report on the AP site

Meanwhile The Associated Press reported last Wednesday that the University of Connecticut in the United States, which said it received about US$4.5 million from members of the Sackler family between 1985 and 2014, will redirect some of the money to support addiction research and education at the institution, according to university officials.
Full report on The Washington Post site