# Richard Sackler

_American billionaire businessman (born 1945)_

Canonical: https://diginpl.com/people/richard-sackler
Last updated: 2026-10-31

> Richard Stephen Sackler (born March 10, 1945) is an American businessman, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and physician who was the chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, a now-defunct pharmaceutical company. Under his leadership of Purdue, the company developed the drug OxyContin, an opioid which is widely believed to have spearheaded the opioid epidemic in the United States. Sackler and Purdue's role in the epidemic led to many lawsuits and fines, with the company filing bankruptcy in 2019. The company's demise and unethical marketing tactics and strategies were the subject of the 2021 Hulu miniseries Dopesick and the 2023 Netflix miniseries Painkiller, in which Sackler is portrayed by Michael Stuhlbarg and Matthew Broderick, respectively.

## Quick facts

- **Born:** 10 March 1945 ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42306725#P569))
- **Place of birth:** Roslyn ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42306725#P19))
- **Citizenship:** United States ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42306725#P27))
- **Occupation:** businessperson; physician ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42306725#P106))

## About

Sackler and his family are also involved in Mundipharma, a United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company which manufactures similar opioids to those originally designed by Purdue, such as Targin.

## Questions

**When was Richard Sackler born?**  
Richard Sackler was born on 10 March 1945 in Roslyn.

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## Sources

- [Wikipedia (English): Richard Sackler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sackler) — [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
- [Wikidata item Q42306725](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42306725) — [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- [Image: Richard Sackler deposition screenshot.jpg by ProPublica (CC BY 3.0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Sackler_deposition_screenshot.jpg)

## Licence and attribution

Text from the Wikipedia article Richard Sackler, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Richard Sackler deposition screenshot.jpg — ProPublica, CC BY 3.0.

## Cite this page

"Richard Sackler". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/richard-sackler. Retrieved 5 November 2026.