U.S. health insurers and benefit plans alleged the consulting giant’s work for drug makers prompted them to pay for opioids instead of non-addictive and cheaper drugs
Consulting firm McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay $78 million to settle a lawsuit brought by health insurers and benefit plans over its involvement in the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic.
The proposed settlement was filed in a federal California court on Friday and resolved claims by the plaintiffs that McKinsey strategized and acted with opioid makers, including Purdue, to create and execute marketing and sales strategies to “maximize opioid revenue.”
The original lawsuit was filed by third-party payers such as private benefit plans, multi-employer pension plans and commercial insurers. They alleged these strategies harmed them by prompting them to pay for prescription opioids instead of safer, non-addictive and cheaper drugs, as well as the “addiction-related treatment that followed.”
McKinsey did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. In a statement shared with The Messenger, the firm said “we continue to believe that our past work was lawful.”
Such bullshit. McKinsey weren’t only helping push opiods, but they literally had the same advisors working with Purdue that were working with the FDA, and they explicitly sold it to Purdue that they would be able to help them get around the FDA to push the drug all over.