The National Academy of Sciences is asking a court to allow it to repurpose some $30 million in donations from the wealthy Sackler family, which controls companies at the center of the opioid epidemic, and remove the family’s name from the endowment.
The college’s petition filed Thursday in Washington, D.C. Superior Court seeks to change the terms of the donation so the institution can use it for scientific research, projects and educational activities.
It follows a New York Times report last year that examined donations from several Sackler members, including an executive at Purdue Pharma, which makes the painkiller OxyContin and has long been accused of Fueling the opioid crisis that has killed thousands.
“The notoriety of the Sackler name prevents the academy from achieving the purposes for which it was originally funded,” Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a statement released Thursday.
Daniel S. Connolly, a spokesman for the Raymond Sackler family, said the family supports the National Academy of Sciences “using these funds as they see fit” and would support the change.
“If anyone had asked us, we would have said ‘yes,’ just as we still say ‘yes,’ despite these unnecessary court filings and false assertions about us,” Connolly said in a statement.
The gifts, initially valued at $19 million, flowed to the agency, which serves as a federal advisory body and convenes panels to provide guidance on opioid policy to authorities including Congress and federal agencies. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which is 70 percent funded by Congress, was founded by Abraham Lincoln to serve as an objective advisor to federal officials.
Groups involved in pain policy include some experts who have been criticized for undisclosed conflicts of interest, including ties to Purdue Pharma. In one case, a panel’s findings that chronic pain was woefully undertreated were used to justify calls for more opioid prescriptions and drug approvals.
Many prestigious institutions and universities publicly backed away from the Sackler’s generosity years ago. Several organizations, including Tufts University and the World Health Organization, have conducted reviews to examine family influence on curriculum or guidance. Dr. Caleb Alexander, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University who studies opioid overuse, said this is a step the college could consider taking.
“It is also important that the National Academy of Sciences first understand how and why the Sackler family and others with financial ties to opioid manufacturers were able to exert such influence and put mechanisms in place to ensure that this never happens again .” he said in an email. Dr. Alexander is a paid plaintiffs expert in opioid litigation.
Sackler family members donate endowment funds to support scientific conferences, awards, and research in the family’s name.
These donations began in 2000, when Dame Jillian Sackler (whose husband Arthur died years before OxyContin was launched), and by 2017, the amount has reached US$5 million. treasurer report exhibit.
Members of the Sackler family involved in running Purdue Pharma donated the balance of a $19 million donation starting in 2008, when Dr. Raymond Sackler, his wife, Beverly, and the pair The couple’s foundation began donating money. Dr. and Ms. Sackler died in 2017 and 2019 respectively. A family spokesman said the donations were publicly described as having nothing to do with Pain or Purdue Pharma.
The funds found their way into the National Academy’s coffers and gained investment value after the news media and prosecutors began to expose the role played by members of the Sackler family in spurring opioid sales.
Last year, the Times article caused a stir among members of the National Academy of Sciences, an elite group of scientists, engineers and doctors elected by their peers. In a letter, 75 members, including eight Nobel laureates, called on the organization to explain why it has failed to return or repurpose the funds over the years.
“The Sackler family’s long history of co-opting the National Academy of Sciences will harm its reputation for years to come,” Robert Hauser, one of the letter’s authors, said in an email Friday. “I hope the NAS will gain some traction from their Remove Sackler’s name from the contributions and repurpose them appropriately.”
President Dr. McNutt said in a statement on Thursday that the funding will be used to address misinformation or develop solutions to the unintended consequences of scientific innovation.
“We intend to use the new funds to leverage our expertise and evidence-based approaches to address the many challenges facing society, including the opioid epidemic, which is taking such a heavy toll on individuals, families and our communities,” said Dr. . McNutt said.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on Purdue Pharma’s controversial bankruptcy settlement, which would have committed billions of dollars to address the opioid epidemic in exchange for shielding Sackler family members from related civil lawsuits.
Under the watch of an independent monitor, Purdue will no longer sell the opioids it produces and the company will be dissolved if the bankruptcy plan is upheld. The Sackler family has not served on Purdue’s Board of Trustees since 2018.