McKinsey & Company consulting agency has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work for opioids producer Purdue Pharma, in line with courtroom papers filed in Virginia on Friday.
McKinsey has additionally entered right into a deferred prosecution settlement to resolve felony fees, together with that it conspired with Purdue Pharma to help within the misbranding of prescribed drugs.
A former McKinsey senior associate has additionally agreed to plead responsible to obstruction of justice, in line with the courtroom papers.
McKinsey representatives did not instantly reply to telephone and electronic mail messages on Friday.
Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay state and native governments about $765 million in settlements for its function in advising companies on promote extra of the highly effective prescription painkillers amid a nationwide opioid disaster.
The consulting agency additionally agreed final yr to pay well being care funds and insurance coverage firms $78 million.
The U.S. has been in an habit and overdose disaster for many years, linked to greater than 80,000 deaths in recent times. For the previous decade, a lot of the deaths have been attributed to illicit fentanyl, which is laced into many unlawful medicine. Earlier within the epidemic, prescription capsules had been the first reason for demise.
Some advocates say the disaster was touched off when Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin hit the market in 1996.
Three Purdue executives pleaded responsible to misbranding fees in 2007 and the corporate agreed to pay a high quality. The firm pleaded responsible to felony fees in 2020 and agreed to $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures — most of which will likely be waived so long as it executes a settlement by chapter courtroom that’s nonetheless within the works.
McKinsey paperwork made public through the years describe Purdue utilizing the consulting agency to assist “turbocharge” opioid gross sales in 2013, as blowback in opposition to the opioid disaster meant that the corporate’s medicine had been being prescribed much less.
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Mulvihill reported from Philadelphia.
