Tufts Hires Former U.S. Attorney To Thoroughly Investigate Allegations About School’s Long History With Sackler Family
For years, the family was known primarily as a benefactor of the arts and sciences, with little attention paid to the key source of the family’s wealth, but that's starting to change. The university is just the latest institution to distance itself from the Sackler family, which is drawing ever-intensifying scrutiny over its involvement with the opioid crisis.
Stat:
Tufts Taps Former U.S. Attorney To Investigate Ties To Purdue Pharma
Tufts University announced Monday it had hired a former U.S. attorney to investigate its relationship with Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family that owns the maker of OxyContin and other opioid painkillers, following allegations that Purdue sought to gain influence at the school through donations. ...Scrutiny of the ties has been building amid the growing opioid crisis — which critics say OxyContin and Purdue’s aggressive marketing of its drugs helped trigger. It came to a head when a lawsuit filed last year by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey against Purdue and members of the Sackler family revealed that the company allegedly influenced educational and research programs at Tufts and sought to use the Tufts brand to bolster the company’s. (Joseph, 3/25)
The New York Times:
Museums Cut Ties With Sacklers As Outrage Over Opioid Crisis Grows
In London this weekend, visitors to the Old Royal Naval College headed to its reopened “painted hall,” an ornate masterpiece called Britain’s answer to the Sistine Chapel, and then went to the Sackler Gallery to learn its story. In Paris, at the Louvre, lovers of Persian art knew there was only one place to go: the Sackler Wing of Oriental Antiquities. Want to find the long line for the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Head for the soaring, glass-walled Sackler Wing. (Marshall, 3/25)
In other news on the crisis —
The Hill:
Oklahoma Supreme Court Rejects Request To Delay Opioid Trial
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by drugmakers to delay the start of an upcoming trial against them in the state for allegedly helping to fuel the opioid epidemic. Oklahoma’s case is expected to be the first state lawsuit against opioid manufacturers to go to trial. (Weixel, 3/25)
WBUR:
Civil Commitment For Addiction Treatment Led To Loved One's Suicide, Family Says
Massachusetts is one of a few states that uses its prisons to involuntarily commit men to addiction treatment — and it uses it more than most states. The DOC does not provide methadone or another addiction medication, buprenorphine, although it says it is working on offering it to civilly committed men. One of the three Section 35 facilities for men is overseen by the Department of Public Health, and that does provide the medications. (Becker, 3/26)
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Bucks Drug Rehab Fraud Made Millions Off Patients’ Relapses, Pa. Attorney General Charges
The cofounder of a Bucks County drug treatment company and 10 others have been charged in a wide-ranging fraud scheme that, state officials say, trapped patients suffering from drug and alcohol addiction in a cycle of ineffective treatments and near-inevitable relapse — all as the company made tens of millions of dollars off insurance reimbursements and kickbacks. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office charged Jason Gerner, the cofounder of Liberation Way, with fraud, conspiracy, and related offenses. (Whelan, 3/25)
