The Heir to the OxyContin Empire Just Bought a $22.5M Mansion

Turns out selling addictive drugs to impoverished Americans is a lucrative business. It’s being reported that David Sackler, whose father and extended family owned the pharmaceutical company that produces OxyContin, has reportedly closed a deal on a $22.5 million mansion in Bel-Air, California, while the rest of the country deals with an opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of over 300,000 Americans.

TMZ reported on Thursday that Sackler has closed escrow on the Bel-Air mansion, with nearly 10,000 square feet inside and nearly four acres of land. The family, whose private-held company Purdue Pharma developed the painkiller OxyContin, has amassed a fortune estimated to be worth $13 billion.

Purdue Pharma has found itself at the heart of several lawsuits around its production of OxyContin. In 2007, the company pleaded guilty to federal charges around misleading people about the drug’s addictiveness, paying some $600 million in fines.

The opioid crisis has largely proliferated through the over-prescribing of addictive opioids like OxyContin, and the Trump administration has been criticized by experts for its lackluster response. Around 90 people die from prescription drug overdoses every day, and more than 42,000 died from an overdose in 2016 alone. The proliferation of adult drug prescriptions has also been linked to a doubling of child overdose cases over the past decade.

View the property below:

The Bel-Air house has five bedrooms, eight full baths, a media room, games room, and gym. There’s a pool, tennis court, pavilion, and enough covered parking for eight cars. All this is spread over two floors, with the whole property described by the real estate firm Sothesby’s International Realty as “very private.”