Tel Aviv University to remove Sackler family name from medical faculty

Tel Aviv University has reached an agreement with the Sackler family to remove their name from the Faculty of Medicine after 50 years. 

The university has been under pressure for years to remove the Jewish family’s name, due to their marketing of the painkiller drug OxyContin that fuelled the United States’ ongoing opioid epidemic.

“In a continuing desire and commitment to assist the University and the Faculty to raise funds for medical research, the Sackler family has kindly agreed to remove their name from the Faculty of Medicine,” a joint statement from the university and the family said

“With this move, they will enable the University to offer naming opportunities for the Faculty of Medicine and School of Medicine to new donors. Tel Aviv University gratefully acknowledges the multi-decade contributions of the Sackler family to the development of the Faculty of Medicine into an Israeli and world leader in the health field,” the statement concluded.

Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, the sons of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, were the founders of Purdue Pharma.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court panel ruled that the family will receive full immunity from all civil legal claims in exchange for spending up to £4,8 billion on addiction treatment and prevention programmes. The ruling effectively ends thousands of civil lawsuits filed against the family’s company.

But it clears the way for the company to declare bankruptcy, a move considered essential to a plan to pay out billions of dollars to help states and communities address the opioid crisis. Of the up to £4,85 billion allocated under the deal, about £606 million, will go to people who became addicted to OxyContin and to family members of people who died from overdoses.

Mortimer and Raymond introduced OxyContin in 1996, after Arthur had left the company; the family then made billions by aggressively marketing the drug for more than two decades, even amid signs it was driving users into opiate addiction.

The Sackler name had been a regular presence in philanthropic circles until the opioid lawsuits began building up in 2019, at which point many cultural institutions began refusing the family’s donations and removing their name from buildings.

Andrew Lapin (Jewish Telegraph Agency) contributed to this report.