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Consulting firm McKinsey has agreed to pay $650m (£515m) to resolve criminal charges relating to its role in the US opioid crisis.
The company “knowingly and intentionally” conspired with pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma to “aiding and abetting the misbranding of prescription drugs…without valid prescriptions,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
McKinsey faced charges of conspiracy to misbrand a drug and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said he gave advice to Purdue Pharma on how to “accelerate” sales of OxyContin, a brand of the painkiller oxycodone hydrochloride.
McKinsey apologized in a statement, saying “we should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society.”
Former McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling will also plead guilty to obstruction for destroying records related to the case.
The US Justice Department said McKinsey had signed a deferred prosecution agreement that will expire in five years if it complies with conditions.
In a deferred prosecution agreement, prosecutors demand corporate reform, among other things, in exchange for temporarily suspending prosecution. If the defendant complies, prosecutors can request that the charges be dismissed.
McKinsey has previously settled nearly $1 billion (£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 $8.3 billion (£6.6 billion) settlement.
The pharmaceutical company admitted to having allowed the supply of medications “without legitimate medical purposes.”
Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the mid-1990s. a study found that In 2002, OxyContin accounted for 68% of oxycodone sales. Another reported that abuse of OxyContin and hydrocodone, another commonly prescribed opioid, was the most prevalent among eight opioids in 2004.
Drug addiction and overdose deaths in the United States have skyrocketed over the past three decades, driven initially by prescription opioids and then by the rise of heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Nearly 100,000 people die from drug overdoses in the United States each year. In the year leading up to June 2024, 97,000 people died from overdoses, 14% fewer than the previous year.
