Tufts will scour Sackler name from its medical campus, in rebuff of family that controls Purdue Pharma

Tufts University announced Thursday it will strip the Sackler name from a graduate school, buildings, and health programs — one of the most dramatic rebuffs so far of the family that controls OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and has donated tens of millions of dollars to educational and cultural institutions worldwide.

The university’s move comes as lawsuits have mounted against the family and Purdue over their alleged role in igniting the nation’s opioid addiction crisis, and amid allegations the family and company sought to generate goodwill and gain influence at Tufts — particularly its pain research and education program — through philanthropy.

A number of museums and schools have announced this year they would no longer accept donations from the Sacklers. Tufts is going further, joining the Louvre, which in July removed the Sackler name from a wing, in scrubbing the family’s name. No longer will programs and facilities at its health sciences and medical school campus, located in downtown Boston, be named after the Sacklers, who along with Purdue have given roughly $15 million to Tufts since 1980.

The university on Thursday also released a report from outside lawyers into the relationship between Tufts and Purdue and the Sacklers. It found evidence that Purdue was “successful in exercising