Consulting firm McKinsey has agreed to pay $650m (£515m) to settle criminal charges relating to its role in the US opioid crisis.
The company “knowingly and willfully” conspired with pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma to “aid and abet the mislabeling of prescription drugs…without valid prescriptions,” according to the US Department of Justice.
McKinsey faced charges of conspiracy to defame a drug and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said they provided advice to Purdue Pharma on how to “stimulate” sales of OxyContin, the brand name for the painkiller oxycodone hydrochloride.
McKinsey apologized in a statement, saying: “We should have recognized the harm opioids cause in our society.”
Martin Elling, a former senior partner at McKinsey, is also set to plead guilty to an obstruction charge for destroying records related to the case.
The US Department of Justice said that McKinsey had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement that would expire in five years if the conditions were met.
In a deferred prosecution agreement, plaintiffs ask for reform of the company, among other things, in exchange for a temporary suspension of prosecution. If the defendant complies, prosecutors can move to dismiss the charges.
McKinsey has previously settled nearly $1bn (£792m) in lawsuits over its work with Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies.
Purdue Pharma itself pleaded guilty in 2020 to criminal charges related to its role in the US opioid crisis in an $8.3bn (£6.6bn) settlement.
The pharmaceutical company admitted that it was able to supply medicines “without a legitimate medical purpose.”
Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the mid-1990s. One study Found it By 2002, OxyContin represented 68% of oxycodone sales. Another reported Abuse of OxyContin and hydrocodone, another commonly prescribed opioid, was the most prevalent of the eight opioids by 2004.
Drug addiction and overdose deaths in the United States have risen dramatically over the past three decades, driven initially by prescription opioids and later by the emergence of heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Nearly 100,000 people die each year from drug overdoses in the United States. In the year before June 2024, 97,000 people died from overdoses, a 14% decrease from the previous year.
