As opioid lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and its billionaire family owners mount, members of the Sackler family are leaving the governing boards of prominent nonprofit organizations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Kathe Sackler and Mortimer Sackler offered to leave the board of the New York Academy of Sciences, home of the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science, to "reduce distractions from the critical missions" of the academy and the institute, according to the report. They left the board last week.
Other Sackler family members have left nonprofit boards in the last few years as well.
In 2017, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, left the board of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, after a quarterly board meeting in which members discussed the opioid crisis, according to the report.
Mortimer Sackler left the board of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, a prominent New York art museum, in late 2018.
A Sackler family representative said the decisions by Illene and Mortimer in 2017 and 2018 were for personal reasons.
The family's giving has been under more scrutiny as details emerge in thousands of lawsuits accusing Purdue Pharma of fueling the opioid epidemic.
Two charitable organizations overseen by Sackler family members recently suspended new philanthropic giving around the globe after several big-name art museums turned down pledges.
Read the full report here.