Raymond Sackler

Raymond Sackler is an American physician, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Sackler and his brothers Arthur and Mortimer pursued, together and independently, careers as psychiatric researchers and practitioners, business leaders, and philanthropists.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1920, Sackler was educated at Erasmus High School, and attended New York University where he received a B.S. in 1938. He pursued medical education starting at Anderson College of Medicine (Glasgow, Scotland), and due to WWII, completed at the Middlesex University School of Medicine (a school on the site of current day Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.) where he received an M.D. degree in 1944. Sackler married Beverly Feldman in 1944. They have two sons, Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler.

Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (P) in 1957, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Sackler, with his two brothers Arthur and Mortimer Sackler, were co-founders of the Creedmoor Institute for Psychobiological Studies in New York City, where they engaged in research in the psycho-biology of schizophrenia and manic depressive psychosis. They received two awards from the Medical Society of the State of New York: the First Award for Scientific Research; and one year later, Honorable Mention for Scientific Research.

With lessons learned in research, Sackler and his brother Mortimer transitioned into the development of numerous pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and research companies, Sackler being closely associated with the now global reach of Purdue Pharma, LLP in the United States, Canada and Mundipharma, Ltd. in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Purdue Pharma, which is 100% privately owned and operated by the Sackler family (a family worth over $14 billion,including Raymond Sackler) is well known for the very successful research and development and very aggressive marketing of the opiate and extremely addictive drug and narcotic Oxycontin.

In May 2007 the company pleaded guilty to misleading the public about Oxycontin's risk of addiction, and agreed to pay $600 million in one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in U.S. history. Its president, top lawyer, and former chief medical officer pleaded guilty as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation, and agreed to pay a total of $34.5 million in fines. Those executives are: Michael Friedman, the company’s president, who agreed to pay $19 million in fines; Howard R. Udell, its top lawyer, who agreed to pay $8 million; and Paul D. Goldenheim, its former medical director, who agreed to pay $7.5 million.

Sackler and his wife Beverly, directly and through the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundations, have initiated and sustained major research programs in the biomedical, biological, physical and engineering sciences through the establishment/endowment of schools, institutes, centers, departments, endowed chairs, professorships, fellowships, research awards in the biomedical and physical sciences, and lectureships at academic institutions around the world. Sackler was privileged to enjoy the friendship, advice and guidance of a host of scientific and academic experts, including Nobel Laureates Joshua Lederberg (Rockefeller University), Emilio G. Segrè (UC Berkeley), Julius Axelrod (NIH), Phillip Sharp (MIT) and Martin Chalfie (Columbia University). A selection of several of the more prominent efforts is described below. In support of the arts, they have been recognized by the British Museum (Raymond and Beverly Sackler Wing, the Ancient Near East and Egypt), the Louvre and together with his two brothers, the Sackler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, which houses the Temple of Dendur and study centers for Chinese and Japanese Art History.

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