Global business consulting firm McKinsey & Company has agreed a $ 573 million deal on its advisory role to companies on how to “overload” opioid sales amid an overdose crisis, it said Wednesday in The Associated Press a person with knowledge of the agreement.
The person was not allowed to speak publicly about the deal ahead of Thursday’s scheduled announcement and filing in courts in 47 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.
McKinsey did not immediately respond to an AP call or email Wednesday night.
Not to mention McKinsey, Attorneys General in at least North Carolina and West Virginia have scheduled announcements for Thursday morning over the opioid crisis. And Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement that the state would file a consent decree Thursday involving McKinsey “which will lead to corporate reforms and more than $ 13 million in Washington state for to opioid treatments, prevention and recovery “. Ferguson said that was separate from the agreement between several states.
Most of the national settlement money, which was first reported by the New York Times, would be sent to states in less than a year and used to lessen the national overdose crisis. Prescription opioids and illegal ones such as heroin and illicit fentanyl have been linked to the deaths of more than 470,000 Americans since 2000. And the epidemic has intensified amid the pandemic of coronavirus.
State and local governments have filed lawsuits in recent years against companies that manufacture and sell prescription opioids for their role in the crisis. But going for a consultant is a new wrinkle in litigation.
McKinsey provided documents used in legal proceedings regarding OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, including some describing its efforts to help the company try to “overload” opioid sales in 2013, as the reaction to the overdose crisis went through the prescription.
Documents made public in Purdue proceedings last year include emails between McKinsey. One in 2008, a year after the company pleaded guilty to opioid-related crimes, says board members, including a member of the Sackler family, “blessed him” for doing whatever he deemed necessary to ” save business “”.
Purdue is in bankruptcy court to try to resolve lawsuits against him. The company has proposed a deal that could be worth $ 10 billion over time. The company last year also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in part in an agreement with the federal government. Both Purdue and members of the firm’s Sackler family agreed to pay $ 225 million to the U.S. government as part of the deal.
A group of major drug distribution companies plus drug maker Johnson & Johnson have also been working on a national agreement.