2 Winter 2020 The Cheese Grater
News & Investigations
The ethics behind the endowment: UCL’s relationship with The Sackler Trust. Sophia Robinson In 2019, UCL launched the new Institute of Mental Health (IoMH). The Institute is a research-based organisation, focusing its efforts on academic research into disciplines relating to mental health, including neurology, psychology and psychiatry. A UCL spokesperson said: “Mental health is one of the world’s most pressing challenges and UCL has made it a key research priority. “UCL’s Institute of Mental Health (IoMH), launched in 2019, underpins this strategy bringing together research and expertise in mental health from across the university. “Through the Institute, UCL is addressing a full spectrum of lifelong mental health issues from developmental disorders in childhood, to dementia in the elderly and is translating this research into clinical care, helping to positively impact people’s lives.” The IoMH is led by Director and Sackler Chair, Professor Anthony David. Professor David’s work at the IoMH is funded by The Sackler Trust, a charitable organisation established by the Anglo-American Sackler family. The Sacklers gained fame and notoriety due to their involvement with Purdue Pharma, which has been the subject of multiple controversies in the last two decades. Members of the Sackler family have been on the board of Purdue Pharma, and according to Forbes, have an estimated net worth of $13billion. Notably, Purdue Pharma invented OxyContin, a slow release opioid designed for pain management, which hit the US
pharmaceutical markets in 1996. Since then, numerous pharmaceutical companies have been involved in the manufacture and sale of OxyContin and other opioids, such as Fentanyl. Consequently, opioid overdose deaths have risen in the US from under 20k p/a in 2000, to 70.2k in 2017, according to statistics from the Centre of Disease Control (CDC). Overall, the opioid crisis has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 Americans since 1999. With the rise of the Opioid Crisis in the US, Purdue Pharma has been subject to hundreds of lawsuits, relating to its sale and manufacture of OxyContin, specifically with accusations of misleading marketing and downplaying concerns about the drug. However, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have strongly denied any wrongdoing. On the 21st of October 2020, Purdue Pharma reached a £6.3bn settlement, and have agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges relating to the enabling of the supply of OxyContin “without legitimate medical purpose”. It is worth noting that Purdue is still facing numerous other cases relating to their involvement with OxyContin and the US Opioid crisis. The recent settlement is awaiting approval by the courts before it is formalised. The Sackler family have allegedly agreed to commit $3billion of their own fortune to the settlement. Due to the multiple pending lawsuits, The Sackler Trust halted all new donations in 2019, but agreed to honour ongoing ones, which may include its financial commitment to the IoMH at UCL. The controversies
Society Bitch Santa Claus is coming to town and believe me I hate all that festive joy crap. I promise I’m not going to whine about Bojo again. It just seems that Soc Bitch has stepped into a parallel universe where reality is a Christmas Hallmark film and COVID is happy to ‘cool it’ for a week so I can eat mince pies with my Gran. This surely is the happy ending that a mask-wearing city girl like me deserves. We’re not all burdened by that sweet hand sanitiser lifestyle – following recent events it seems Tamil Society completely forgot that coronavirus exists. Freshers keen to have in person sports trials asked Tamil Soc for them during a national lockdown and surprisingly it turned out Tamil Soc had no choice in that matter and just had to make it happen. Damn – if only they were responsible for their actions. After a different set of freshers reported them to the Union, Tamil Soc have now been disaffiliated for a whopping 18 months. We live in truly tragic times when fresher grasses on fresher; when societies are not given the freedom to follow every single suggestion that comes their way, no matter how stupid the suggestion is. A lot of freshers have asked Soc Bitch to come to their houses and seductively grate cheese for them. But sadly, since surely freshers will tell on me in these dark dark times, you’ll have to just stick to my OnlyFans. surrounding the Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family, and by extension The Sackler Trust, raises the question of whether it is ethical for a reputable university such as UCL to continue its relationship with the Trust. Moreover, is it appropriate for UCL to accept funds for the Institute of
