Raymond Sackler

Born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family, in 1920, Sackler was educated at Erasmus High School, and attended New York University where he received a bachelor's degree in 1938. Due to Jewish quotas imposed by the major U.S. medical schools during that era, he started his medical education at Anderson College of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland, which he attended from 1938 to 1940.[8] When World War II began, he stayed in Scotland and volunteered in the British Home Guard and also served as a plane spotter.[9] He returned to the U.S. and completed his studies at Middlesex University School of Medicine (a school on the site of current day Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.) where he received an MD in 1944. Sackler married Beverly Feldman in 1944. They had two sons, Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler. Beverly Sackler died on October 15, 2019 at the age of 95.[10]

Sackler was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (P) in 1957, and was a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.[11] Sackler, with his two brothers, Arthur and Mortimer, co-founded 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. In 1998, Sackler was awarded a Doctor of Law Honoris Causa from the University of Cambridge.[12]

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 in the United States and Canada and Mundipharma, Ltd. in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Purdue Pharma, which is 100% privately owned and operated by the families of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, is well known for successful research and development, and particularly for marketing[4][3] the opiate drug Oxycontin and related compounds.

• Sackler family