The consulting giant McKinsey & Company will pay $573 million to settle a case from 47 states, Washington, D.C. and five territories over its role advising opioid manufacturers, according to multiple reports.
Unidentified sources told The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that the settlement will be filed in state courts on Thursday in every state but Nevada, Washington and West Virginia, which weren’t involved in the agreement.
McKinsey will be required to pay $478 million within 60 days for its recommendations to manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, on how to boost opioid sales during the epidemic, according to documents revealed in lawsuits. That money will be distributed to opioid treatment, prevention and recovery programs.
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The court documents, ranging from 2004 to 2019, when it stopped advising on opioids, showed that McKinsey advised Purdue to prioritize selling its OxyContin painkiller, even after the manufacturer pleaded guilty to misleading doctors and regulators about the risks involved in 2007. McKinsey also reportedly instructed Purdue to “band together” with other drug manufacturers to combat the Food and Drug Administration’s regulations.
In the settlement, McKinsey will not admit to misconduct and instead implement restrictions ordered by the court on its consulting involving some addictive narcotics, the Times noted.
Other restrictions reportedly mandate the consulting firm keep five years of emails, reveal potential conflicts of interest when going for government contracts and make tens of thousands of pages of documents on its opioid recommendations available in a database.
McKinsey did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment.
The Journal reported last week that the consulting firm was getting close to a settlement with state attorneys general that could total hundreds of millions of dollars.
The cost of the settlement will be higher than what McKinsey made for its opioid-related work with Purdue and other companies, one of the sources told the Times.