Sackler Family Gave Millions to U.S. Institution That Shapes Opioid Policy

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was chartered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to serve as an independent institution that advises policy. The U.S. government has used it to form a federal response to the opioid epidemic for the last decade. But the National Academies have been keeping a potentially massive conflict-of-interest under wraps: According to The New York Times, the institution has accepted about $19 million in donations from the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma, which created the OxyContin, the drug most often considered the culprit for the opioid crisis in the first place. Considering the National Academies produce data and reports that directly influence the decisions of lawmakers, researchers are concerned that these donations present a serious conflict. “I didn’t know they were taking private money,” Michael Von Korff, a prominent pain care researcher, told the Times. “It sounds like insanity to take money from principals of drug companies and then do reports related to opioids. I am really shocked.”