Several members of the Sackler family own and control Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical giant facing a string of lawsuits over its alleged role in the crisis.
The Sacklers — the billionaire family whose privately held company is accused of playing a central role in the U.S. opioid epidemic — are stepping away from philanthropy as negative press and legal action mount against them.
"The current press attention that these legal cases in the United States is generating has created immense pressure on the scientific, medical, educational and arts institutions here in the U.K., large and small, that I am so proud to support. This attention is distracting them from the important work that they do," she said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control , almost 218,000 Americans died from prescription opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2017, while a study published earlier this year claimed Americans are now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than in a car accident. Last week, the trust rescinded an offer of a $1.3 million grant to the U.K.'s National Portrait Gallery to"avoid being a distraction" to the museum. Days later, art gallery group Tate announced it would no longer accept gifts from the Sacklers.
Despite the shift away from Sackler funding, institutions are yet to make moves to remove the family's name from their walls — and they may be unable to. Harvard University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum and the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler gallery were both funded by donations made in the 1980s, decades before OxyContin was invented.
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