Madeleine Sackler

Madeleine Sackler (born 1983) is an American filmmaker and Sackler family heiress. She received an Emmy Award in 2015 and was nominated for a second in 2020. Her grandfather, Raymond, was one of the three Sackler brothers who created and owned Purdue Pharma, infamous for its role in the Opioid epidemic. She has received criticism for her family fortune, which derives mostly from the sale and manufacture of the highly addictive pharmaceutical opioid Oxycontin, the central drug in the opioid crisis.

The Sackler family, including Madeleine Sackler, is profiled in various media, including the documentary Crime of the Century on HBO and in the book Empire of Pain by Patrick Keefe. As outlined in the book, she has scrupulously denied her family’s role in one of America’s largest public health crises, which has claimed the lives of over 600,000 people.