McKinsey settles over role in U.S. opioid crisis

Consulting giant McKinsey & Co struck a $573 million settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and five territories to resolve investigations by most U.S. states into its alleged role in "turbocharging" sales of opioids, fueling a nationwide epidemic.

This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

Consulting giant McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay $573 million to settle investigations over its alleged role in 'turbocharging' opioid sales as it advised drug makers, including Purdue Pharma.

The settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and five territories was announced Thursday by multiple attorneys general, including North Carolina AG Josh Stein.

Stein: “Purdue Pharma didn’t dream up all of its ideas on its own on how to push its pills.

No.

It paid global consulting firm McKinsey handsomely for 15 years to design marketing plans to help it sell more pills, to more patients at increasing potency for longer periods of time.” McKinsey did not admit liability or wrongdoing.

As part of the agreement, it will turn over tens of thousands of internal documents concerning its work for drug makers including Purdue, the manufacturer of OxyContin, which is owned by the wealthy Sackler family and the drugmaker most closely associated with the epidemic.

The consulting firm will also continue to investigate whether employees, including two partners, tried to destroy documents in response to probes concerning its work with Purdue, which in October agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin, as part of a more than $8 billion settlement.

More than 3,300 lawsuits seek to hold drug makers, distributors and pharmacies responsible for an opioid epidemic that led to an estimated 450,000 overdose deaths in the United States since 1999.