Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Painkiller’ is based on the true story of how the opioid crisis took hold and destroyed the lives of thousands of people in America. In the show, fictionalized for dramatic purposes, the events are narrated by Edie Flowers, who traces the origins of the crisis by introducing the audience to the Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma. She goes back to the days of Arthur Sackler to shed light on the actions of Richard Sackler and how he came up with the idea of OxyContin. The show also focuses on Edie’s journey, from a dedicated federal investigator who did everything she could to expose Purdue to becoming disillusioned by the bureaucracy holding her back.
While a good part of the Netflix series follows Richard Sackler, it doesn’t really focus on his family. Interestingly, we never see Richard’s wife or children with him in his huge mansion. Richard had two daughters, Marianna and Rebecca. Since they don’t feature in the TV show, you might be curious about where they are now and what their lives look like. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
Marianna Sackler is a Focusing on Her Career Now
Marianna Sackler (now Frame) lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband, James Frame, and their two children. Reportedly, they own a home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, which was worth $12 million when they bought it. Born in February 1983, Marianna studied at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. She briefly worked at Purdue Pharma, and according to a USDC document, she held several roles within the company. She worked as Crisis Management Coordinator and a consultant in the “research and development department” on OxyContin projects but was never an officer or a director at the company.
Reportedly, in a deposition when several parties sued Purdue Pharma, Marianna was “uncommunicative” and claimed not to have played any significant role in the issue surrounding OxyContin. She said that she talked to her father or a family financial adviser if she needed money and claimed to have no memory of a $4.4-million payment she was said to have received a few years prior. After Purdue, Marianna moved on to Mundipharma Italy, where she took up a PR role and was involved in advancing “information around topics about pain in Italy” and “marketing and selling OxyContin.”
Marianna’s other ventures include being the founder of Superior Point Productions, Leadership of the Associates’ Group and National Committee Member at American Friends of the Israel Museum, Outreach Coordinator at Ethel, Founder and Philanthropic Consultant at Expert Philanthropy, and Assistant Director of Tourism Development at Apicius Culinary Institute of Florence. Marianna also served as the Director of Development and Charitable Planning at Love Your Brain Foundation. She got in touch with the foundation through her role as Director of Impact and Outreach at The Crash Reel and has been working with them since.
Rebecca Sackler is Actively Doing Community Work Today
Rebecca Sackler (now Selikoff) lives in New York with her husband, Jeffrey Selikoff. Born in 1989, Rebecca took a different route than her sister, Marianna. Instead of joining the family business, she became a veterinarian. In 2012, she graduated from Yale College and further studied at the University of California–Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She has worked at The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center.
In 2014, Rebecca and Marianna, with their father, Richard, and brother, David, established The Richard Sackler Family Endowment in Medicine at Yale, which was funded by “a gift of stock donated by Sackler in 2009” and supported one professorship in the Department of Neurobiology and two in other fields. In 2019, Yale stopped taking donations from the Sackler family. A few years back, Rebecca and Jeffrey created a Foundation in memory of their daughter.
Through the foundation, the Selikoffs “intend to use the funds to help advance hydrops and neonatal research, help support NICU parents and families, and provide targeted and meaningful resources to UC Davis Children’s Hospital.” They also intended to extend this support to UCSF’s hydrops research program, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and other neonatal organizations.
Read More: Michael Friedman and Paul Goldenheim: Where Are the Ex-Purdue Executives Now?
