UConn to redirect donations from opioid maker owners
Posted October 9, 2019 1:29 pm.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The University of Connecticut says it will redirect some of the money it received from the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to support addiction research and education at the school.
The university said Wednesday it will redirect all the unspent money except for a donation that supports a regenerative engineering lab. UConn says it received about $4.5 million from members of the Sackler family between 1985 and 2014.
The announcement comes a week after an AP review revealed that universities around the world have accepted more than $60 million from Sackler family foundations since 2013, even as family members faced lawsuits related to the opioid crisis.
No schools have indicated they plan to return the funding.
UConn’s decision to redirect the funding follows a similar move at Brown University.
Jennifer McDermott And Collin Binkley, The Associated Press
