Tufts University Strikes Down Sackler Name From Campus and Creates Addiction Endowment

    Monday, December 9, 2019



    Tufts University’s School of Medicine will no longer have the Sackler name in its medicine programs.

    Tufts University has officially taken down the Sackler name from all of its health sciences campuses and has decided to create an endowment aimed at prevention and treatment addiction. Tufts University officials made the announcement last Thursday December 5.

    For years, the Sackler family’s name has been associated with their more than generous philanthropy to universities, museums, and other causes. But for many people now, it is undeniably linked to the nation’s opioid epidemic because the family owns Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, which is the most addictive prescription narcotic.

    Tufts is one of several higher education institutions and top colleges and universities that is reconsidering their association with the Sackler family. 

    Tufts University has also released results of an independent review commissioned by Tufts officials in order to examine its past relationships with Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members. There has been no evidence found that the Sackler family’s funds skewed the college’s academic programs or that university policies were violated. The review, however, did suggest that, in a few instances, the company was successful in exerting some influence. This influence may have been direct or indirect but there was an appearance of an incredibly too close for comfort relationship between the university’s medicine college, company, and family.

    Lawyers who conducted the review suggested a series of changes that Tufts could make to improve their oversight and accountability with regard to donations. The university could appoint a chief compliance officer, create a gifts policy committee, and even increase training in conflicts of interest.

    The college’s leaders have committed to implementing those recommendations,

    Daniel S. Connolly, the Sackler family’s attorney, has said that they will definitely seek to have Tuft University’s “improper” decision reversed.

    “We appreciate that after a careful inquiry Tufts determined what has been true all along, that Purdue and the Sackler family conducted themselves properly and no wrongdoing or threat to academic integrity was found. This investigation’s findings are emblematic of so many of the negative stories surrounding Purdue and the family, that a careful look at the facts proves the allegations to be false and sensational. There is something particularly disturbing and intellectually dishonest,” said Connolly in an email. The Sackler family is not pleased with the university’s decision to remove their donor name. 

    University leaders said the name had become inconsistent with Tuft University’s college. The School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences has values, such as commitment to relieve suffering and improve quality of life, that go against the Sackler family’s company’s past and present history.

    Tufts University President Anthony P. Monaco said in a written statement, “This decision also acknowledges the countless individuals and families who have suffered so much loss, harm, and sorrow as a result of the opioid crisis and it acknowledges members of our own community who have struggled on a daily basis with the university’s very public association with the Sackler name.” 
    The Sackler name was incredibly prominent within the medicine college’s Boston health science campus.

    Now the Tufts name will replace Sackler at the:
    • Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
    • Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education
    • Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
    • Sackler Families Fund for Collaborative Cancer Biology Research
    • Richard S. Sackler, M.D. Endowed Research Fund

    Tufts University is not returning money donated by the Sacklers. The gifts will continue to be used for their intended purposes, including biomedical research.

    Tufts will create a $3 million endowment to support education, research, and other efforts related to the prevention and treatment of addiction.

    Tufts also plans to create an exhibit about the Sackler family’s history with the university, which began in the 1980s. This was long before OxyContin was introduced. Tufts plans to acknowledge the important contributions that the family has made to the university.

    Jillian Sackler, the widow of Arthur M. Sackler, responded to the news on Thursday by stating: “Arthur had nothing to do with OxyContin. The man has been dead for 32 years. He did not profit from OxyContin, and none of his philanthropic gifts were in any way connected to opioids or to deceptive medical marketing — which he likewise had nothing to do with. It deeply saddens me to witness Arthur being blamed for actions taken by his brothers and other OxySacklers.”

    Peter Dolan, chairman of Tuft’s board of trustees, responded: “While the financial support provided by Arthur may have been intended to provide charitable support for the academic and research mission of the university, the current day association of the opioid epidemic with the Sackler name conflicts with that charitable intent. Therefore, the Board of Trustees and President Monaco decided that the named association with Tufts — particularly given the direct association with our medical and biomedical sciences school — was untenable and in opposition with the values and mission of the medical school and the university.”

    The university has never taken a step like this before. Dolan stated: “We were compelled to take action by the extraordinary circumstances of this public health crisis and its impact on our mission. We are grateful for the students, faculty, and alumni we met with who made it clear that the Sackler name now runs counter to the mission of the medical school, has had a negative impact on their studies and professional careers, and contradicts the purpose for which the gifts were initially given: to advance public health and research.”