Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

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Up till 3 a.m.

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2021

I knew the general outlines of the story, but the book still kept me up till three a.m. reading it! Opioids, and their marketing, were the slipperiest of slopes and the nation skidded down the hill.

As a doc, I knew of the overprescribing in the late 1990's and wondered how a "controlled substance" could make it from the factory to the streets with such ease. Now I know. At least I never wrote a script for it and never took a single dose of this poison.

Evil. Pure, homegrown, evil. Aided and abetted by lawyers, and even McKinsey. NO ONE bothered to say what everyone knew: there was no excuse for the flood of opioids. No excuse except the addiction to money.

259 people found this helpful

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Meesha

Wasn't the hard hitting piece I was hoping for

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2021

The 1st half of this book was a page turner. I loved the history of the 3 brothers. The struggles, the effort, the clever manipulation. What clearly laid the groundwork for the next generations to create an opioid crisis in the US. This was well done. The back half of the book lost all of the sizzle. I was bored. I also couldn't quite connect the comparison of gun manufacturers being just like the Sacklers, since drug addiction and the pending death that often accompany it are A) Not a constitutional right and B) Guns are not addictive nor do they guarantee death. The two instances where the book tied to draw this correlation created a total lack of journalistic credibility for me. Perhaps that's why I lost interest. I'd recommend this book regardless, for decent education purposes. But I wouldn't recommend wasting a weekend cover to cover on this.

57 people found this helpful

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DixieD

Up till 3 a.m.

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2021

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259 people found this helpful

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Michele Bair

Devastating

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2021

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This is the story of 4 generations of one American family, the Sacklers, it's not meant to document the Opiod Epidemic that has cost our country 500 thousand lives and 2 trillion dollars, as such it reads like a novel in some places, especially the opening chapter, and a morality play througout.

Though I am grateful to Keefe for writing this book and attempting to hold this "pure evil" family to account I am devastated that they clearly seem to have gotten away with it all. Sackler Family sold 40 billion dollars worth of highly addictive poison, cleared about 12 billion of that in cash, funneled billions offshore stripping Purdue Pharma of most of its meaningful assets, then declared bankruptcy leaving less than a billion or so to cover damages from Maine to California.

I share the author's hope that this book will inspire others to read the archive and tell this story someday. We can't bring back the lives of so many who were so cruelly taken. We can't hold those to account who profited so cruelly from the lies they told us so expertly. But we can still tell this story in the hope that the next Sackler family won't be able to get away with all of it - next time. And we need to tell this story for the half a million Americans who seemed to have paid for the Sackler Family Trust Funds with their lives.

149 people found this helpful

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Shadysix78

Unbelievable, great read, highly recommended.

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2021

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This book gives a glimpse into the underworld of the pharmaceutical industry. But more than that I believe it truly explains how the world really works. Its focus is the Sackler family and the shady dealings of Big Pharma. But if you step back and look at the big picture it explains how these billionaires run everything. Anything that needs big money backing. Politics and politicians are bought and paid for just like this book lays out. Hell these companies write their own laws for Christ sakes. Great read that gives you a rare glimpse into how the World not just the pharmaceutical world truly operates. Just read this book fantastic journalism that is rare these days.

104 people found this helpful

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You MUST buy this book

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2021

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I have been eagerly waiting for Mr. Radden Keefe's book the moment I finished his last novel, Say Nothing. If I could give this book and all of his books ten stars I would. The Washington Post said it best in their recent book review: "Keefe is a gifted storyteller who excels at capturing personalities, which is no small thing given that the Sacklers didn’t provide access." He is a beautiful story teller and in every page you feel as if you are in the room living the moments he is recreating. You will not be disappointed by this book (or any of his books). He is a brilliant and talented writer and devoured this book the moment it was delivered. You will not be disappointed in reading anything Mr. Radden Keefe writes! His books are simply outstanding.

85 people found this helpful

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Leah Dickstein

An incredible read—thorough and informative

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2021

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Yes it will make your blood boil and yes it’s still worth reading. I’ll definitely be looking into PAIN after this.

43 people found this helpful

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vjstravino

Important, Revealing and Damning

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

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Keefe has meticulously managed to package the vast vile and many purposeful dastardly tangles of the Sackler Family into a marvelous, readable work of narrative non-fiction. As a frontline healthcare provider since the early days in Appalachia, where the devastation to their deeds was utterly catastrophic, I am well aware of the Sacklers/Purdue dupe on the American public. As the author points out, there are many areas of blame and responsibility, but this may never have happened without the sheer greed of the Sackler clan.

Even if you have read the excellent works on the Oxycontin/opioid crisis that precede this work (Barry Meier's "Pain Killer," Sam Quinones', "Dreamland" and Beth Macy's "Dopesick"), Keefe's work is even more enlightening and encompassing and I recommend it without reserve.

I really thought I knew all there was to know about the Oxycontin/Opioid epidemic after being a witness to it for the past 25 years, but this book unearthed another layer to the crisis that is needed and may give pause to future regulators/legislatures/medical professionals about the folly of casually using lethal potions based upon anecdotal hearsay and scant scientific data. A powerful family, with endlessly deep pockets and a team of lawyers and admen have outwitted/paid off all the regulatory bodies and oversight infrastructures for obscene personal gain.

This book goes a long way in sullying the name of this family that they, themselves, cleverly tried to immortalize with grotesque profits at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Keefe is excellent. He is an American literary treasure. Thank you.

30 people found this helpful

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the Opiod Crisis Exposed

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2021

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Patrick Radden Keefe is the best writer I have read in a long time. You finish all 452 pages and you know very well the story could never have been more succinct, more tight: it’s perfect. Three Jewish brothers, sons of immigrants, are intelligent, enterprising, and devoted. One of them, Arthur Sackler, is attentive to dilemmas of mental patients and appalled at the lack of medical interventions to alleviate pain. His research led to the invention of Valium and eventually, Oxycontin. Arthur bought a pharmaceutical manufacturing company (Purdue),and brothers Mortimer and Raymond would manage it. As time evolves both the pain treatment world and the development of drugs to treat pain, Purdue folks realize that oxy condone seemed to prescribing physicians as less threatening than traditional morphine; earlier Bayer had manufactured heroin as morphogenetic without the pesky side effects—-even though heroin was more powerful and just as addictive. This is really a turning point in the narration of the opiod crisis story: Purdue executives decide to follow a similar strategy and they begin to exploit the misunderstanding that oxy was less strong, more safe. In those days, doctors knew what they knew about oxy based on Percocet in which a very small dose of oxycodone is combined with acetaminophen or aspirin. The company for reasons of profit and sales decides to enhance the product’s appeal to doctors by pushing it for non-malignant pain—-forms of chronic pain because, after all, who doesn't have some of that? So the appeal expanded far beyond cancer patients—-not only would its use become widened for all sorts of patients (even juveniles), but the dosage could be increased. And so it was. The relationships with doctors in the field, the Food and Drug Administration, and the countless museums which benefitted from Sackler generosity weaves a very tangled web of unchecked capitalism and moral poverty. Purdue decided to create a special coating which would minimize the risk of addiction—or perhaps remove that risk altogether. This unique “improvement” would eliminate the risk of serious addiction (when is addiction NOT serious?) so that the wedding of the opium poppy and pain management could be obtained without danger. The sales and marketing of the product and the wooing of doctors is the most sorrowful chapter of unfettered capitalism: people started dying from overdoses. There is something odd about “the guns-don’t- kill people; people- kill- people” thinking here—-the Sacklers claimed addicts misused the product and truly, it could not be seen as their fault nor their responsibility. Most of us would remember Big Tobacco litigation and walking a mile for a Camel or the Marlboro Man: now the Purdue company was spending millions per month on litigation, but that litigation was seen as an annoyance at best. A photographer widely recognized for her artistic expression and product, Nan Goldin, developed a painful case of tendinitis in a wrist and a doctor prescribed OxyContin. The drug felt to her “like a padding between you and the world.” For three years she took the pills, always upping the ante and taking more and more. She overdosed. She was hooked, and she knew it, so at the age of 62, she checked herself into a rehabilitation facility of great repute and began a journey to sobriety. In 2017, she read an article in the New Yorker magazine about the opiod crisis which mentioned the drug developed by the Sacklers and their company which painted a picture in stark contrast between their generosity in the world of culture and their —-well, depravity—-their source of Great Wealth. A Chair of Psychiatry at the esteemed Duke University noted that the Sackler name is known as the source of good and philanthropic work, but actually those gifts and their fortune come to us as the result of the millions of people who are addicted to their product. Phillip Radden Keefe was the writer of the magazine article. As a result of the readership of the magazine and the compelling content of the article (we all know the New Yorker doesn’t limit its writers—that the magazine tells the whole story), the Sackler family came under ever increasing scrutiny for their role in the opiod crisis. Nan Goldin arranged for protests in some of the very museums once blessed with Sackler funds and she just would not stop. Nor would Keefe: he interviewed Purdue employees and saw Denial in the lot of them; the reader of this expose will see Greed as the driving principle. This books calls into question the entire scheme—-advertisers and marketers, wholesalers, doctors who wrote the scripts, and the pharmacies who carried the drug. The only whistleblower who emerges from the entire dreadful Mess is Patrick Radden Keefe himself. Read this book if you want another example of how unfettered capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction: sorrowful.

6 people found this helpful

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Robert B. LammTop Contributor: Historical Fiction Books

Brilliantly Researched and Written

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2021

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Patrick Radden Keefe is becoming, or may already by, the reigning master of narrative non-fiction. His interests - human smuggling (as in “The Snakehead”), the “troubles” in Northern Ireland (“Say Nothing”), and now corporate greed — are diverse. His research and his ability to absorb what he knows and then spin a gripping tale are dazzling.

I read this 452-page book as if it were a page-turning mystery; if it weren’t for work and some other necessities, I might well have finished it in one sitting. It is a scathing indictment of Purdue Pharma but most important the Sackler family —- a mega-wealthy clan that bears a large chunk of responsibility for the ongoing opioid epidemic but that steadfastly maintains (and perhaps even believes) that it is in no way responsible for it). It is a tale of how money can afford the best lawyers with the best connections, and who manage to get away with murder. Literally.

The author seems to have read thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of pages of files, testimony, pharmaceutical research, regulatory filings, and so on, but he synthesizes what he’s learned and is thus able to create a strong narrative.

My only two criticisms of the book are (1) a more detailed family tree and dramatic personae would have been somewhat helpful and (2) at times, the book takes on a screed-like quality that batters the reader. However, these are small matters, and the book is a must-read.

4 people found this helpful

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Savvy Geezer

Avoiding justice in the 21st century

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

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At a time when confidence in our national institutions is waning, this chronicle of how the Sackler family made billions in a fraudulent enterprise and used the Federakl Government and courts to keep it, despite its devastating toll on public health. Its a fascinating story, and one which makes one sick at how money and greed have come to supplant justice in this country. This is required reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry and how it games the health care system in the USA.

10 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Hell Has a Hot Bench for the Sacklers

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2021

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Shocking
Horrifying
The writer covers this viper family’s origin very well
What could have been dry material - the author put a shine on

It’s 500 pages , indeed
And I consider myself highly literate with any Ivy League background .
But I stayed up night after night with it

The Sacklers should all be in prison

I did not know the patriarch got a cut of every Valium pill sold in the world
That’s where the money train started

The greed outlined by the author is appalling

It is worth the hours invested in it

5 people found this helpful

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