Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Empire of Pain traces the history of the Sackler family, the founding of Purdue Pharma and the family’s central role in the opioid epidemic. Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler were the sons of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, and all three became doctors. Arthur, the eldest, had a gift for advertising and pioneered the marketing of medicines directly to doctors.

After his death his brothers took full control of the drug maker Purdue Frederick, invested in opioid research and sold the resulting painkiller using the techniques Arthur had developed. The book grew out of Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2017 article for The New Yorker.