STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - The co-founder of Purdue Pharma, a Connecticut company that markets the powerfully addictive painkiller OxyContin, has died at age 97.
Company officials say Dr. Raymond Sackler, a Greenwich resident, died Monday after a brief illness. He's survived by his wife, Beverly, and their two sons.
In 1952, Sackler and his brother purchased Purdue, which was then based in New York City and is now headquartered in Stamford.
The company, owned by Sackler's family, develops and markets medicines, health care products and antiseptics for pain management, including the opioid OxyContin.
Sackler began pursuing his medical degree at Anderson College of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland, and received his M.D. in 1944 from the Middlesex University School of Medicine, on the site of present day Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.