Consulting firm McKinsey has agreed to pay $650 million (£515 million) to settle criminal charges related to its role in the US opioid crisis.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the company “knowingly” conspired with pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma to “aid and abet the misbranding of prescription drugs…without a valid prescription.”
McKinsey was charged with misbranding drugs and conspiring to obstruct justice. Prosecutors say he advised Purdue Pharma on how to “supercharge” sales of OxyContin, the brand name for the painkiller oxycodone hydrochloride.
McKinsey apologized in a statement, saying, “We should have recognized the harm that opioids pose to our society.”
Former McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling is also expected to plead guilty to a charge of destroying records related to the case.
The U.S. Justice Department said McKinsey had signed a deferred prosecution agreement that would expire in five years if it met conditions.
The deferred prosecution agreement includes a request for the prosecution to reform the company in exchange for a temporary suspension of prosecution. If the defendant complies, prosecutors can dismiss the charges.
McKinsey has already settled lawsuits for about $1 billion (£792 million) over its previous work with Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies.
Purdue Pharma itself pled guilty in 2020 to criminal charges related to its role in the US opioid crisis, paying an $8.3 billion (£6.6 billion) settlement.
The pharmaceutical company admitted that it had enabled the supply of the drug “without any legitimate medical purpose”.
Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin in the mid-1990s. one study found it By 2002, OxyContin accounted for 68% of oxycodone sales. another report In 2004, abuse of Oxycontin and hydrocodone, another commonly prescribed opioid, was the most prevalent of the eight opioids.
Drug addiction and overdose deaths in the United States have skyrocketed over the past three decades, fueled first by prescription opioids and later by the rise of synthetic opioids such as heroin and fentanyl.
Approximately 100,000 people die from drug overdoses each year in the United States. In the year to June 2024, 97,000 people died from overdose, a 14% decrease from the previous year.
