The Sackler Family, Its Wealth and Opioids

In recent years, opioid addiction has become an epidemic in the U.S. As health professionals and policymakers push for more funding to tackle the crisis, one group of people has remained largely quiet: the Sacklers, the family behind the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma that manufactures OxyContin. 

“There's a Sackler wing at the Met. There's a Sackler wing at the Louvre. They put their names on all kinds of things," said Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker. "The one thing they really don't put their name on is the company Purdue Pharma."

This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Keefe about his story, "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain," which details the role the Sacklers played in the spread of OxyContin and opioid addiction.