McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay $650 million to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the consulting firm’s work advising opioid manufacturer OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on how to boost sales, according to a Reuters report.
The report said that McKinsey has entered into a five-year deferred prosecution agreement filed in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, to resolve criminal charges brought as part of a rare corporate prosecution concerning the marketing of addictive painkillers that helped fuel the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic.
Prosecutors said that McKinsey provided Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue advice on measures it could take to “turbocharge” OxyContin sales.
It was charged with conspiring to misbrand a drug and obstruction of justice. A former senior partner at McKinsey, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying records related to McKinsey’s work for Purdue, according to court papers.
He is scheduled to enter his plea on Jan. 10. McKinsey previously reached agreements totaling nearly $1 billion to settle widespread lawsuits and other legal actions alleging the company helped fuel the opioid epidemic through its work advising OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers.
In 2019, McKinsey announced it would no longer advise clients on opioid-related businesses. The company has maintained that none of its settlements contain admissions of liability or wrongdoing.
Please follow and like us:
