Amid Opioid Controversy, Sackler Name Removed From Tel Aviv University Medical Faculty
Tel Aviv University and the billionaire Sackler family have agreed to remove the family’s name from the university’s Faculty of Medicine, the university and the family announced in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Although the statement did not give a reason for the decision, it follows years of controversy and the settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the family’s role in the opioid addiction epidemic in the United States.
The Sackler family founded and owned the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, which in the 1990s manufactured and promoted OxyContin, an addictive pain relief opioid that was a key drug in the epidemic. After facing thousands of lawsuits, Purdue Pharma was dissolved in 2021 and the Sackler family, reportedly worth some $11 billion from the drug sales, agreed to pay out $4.5 billion over nine years, with most of the money going to funding addiction treatment.
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Over the years, the family had donated hundreds of millions of dollars to numerous institutions in the US and around the world. Many have since dropped the family’s name and others have stopped accepting donations from the family.
Wednesday’s statement said that the university’s medical faculty had borne the Sackler family’s name for over 50 years, and the university “gratefully acknowledges the multi-decade contributions of the Sackler family.”
However, now “the Sackler family has kindly agreed to remove their name from the Faculty of Medicine. With this move, they will enable the university to offer naming opportunities for the Faculty of Medicine and School of Medicine to new donors,” the statement said.
As of Thursday afternoon, the university’s website still carried the Sackler name on its Faculty of Medicine.
