McKinsey To End Opioid Marketing Claims With $573M Deal

McKinsey To End Opioid Marketing Claims With $573M Deal

Introduction

On Thursday, McKinsey & Co., the American worldwide management consulting firm, announced that it would pay $573 million to resolve a lawsuit filed over its role in fueling the opioid epidemic.

According to the settlement, which is yet to be approved by the court, the company will have to pay $478 million within 60 days, which will be distributed to opioid treatment, prevention, and recovery programs. The case was filed by 47 states, Washington, D.C., and five territories for turbocharging opioid sales for Purdue Pharma LP and earning profits from the crisis caused.

The allegations include that the company advised Purdue on how to boost sales by pushing on higher, more lucrative dosages and increased sales rep visits to high-volume opioid prescribers. The complaint states that McKinsey delivered OxyContin directly to patients through mail-order pharmacies to avoid suspicion.

The states also alleged that the company urged physicians to prescribe more OxyContin to more patients and encouraged drugmakers to band together to defend against strict treatment by the FDA on risk mitigation efforts that could have reduced high doses and saved lives.

As per the settlement deal, the company is also required to produce all the internal documents that report its work with Purdue. The company denied any wrongdoing and agreed to not take part in any opioid-related work moving forward.

Last month, Insys Therapeutics founder agreed to pay $5 million to New Jersey to resolve a lawsuit that claimed that the founder bribed doctors of the state to boost sales of its powerful Opioid, Subsys.

According to the settlement deal, the founder will pay a lump sum of $1 million first, which will be followed by another $4 million. The amount is intended to be used to fund the state's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic as well as pay for litigation expenses. The remaining funds will be given to agencies affected by the founder's alleged kickback scheme.

Purdue Pharma settlement

The deal is the settlement to come from the more than 3,000 lawsuits that have been brought against medicine manufacturers and other companies involved in opioid manufacturing.

The organization, which has denied wrongdoing, is blamed for using deceptive marketing and ignoring signs of abuse, unleashing an epidemic that drove millions to addiction and claimed the lives of an estimated 450,000 people through overdose deaths from 1999 to 2018.

In October, Oxycontin-maker Purdue admitted to enabling the supply of drugs "without legitimate medical purpose", paying doctors and others illegal kickbacks to prescribe the drugs, among other claims. It agreed to pay $8.3bn.

Thousands of lawsuits against pharmacies, drug distributors, and others are still pending.