Minnesota to get $8 million for opioid epidemic settlement
(The Center Square) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a coalition of attorneys general from 47 states in a $573 million settlement with McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s largest consulting firms.
The settlement resolves investigations into the company’s role in helping opioid companies promote their drugs. After payment of costs, the settlement will fund opioid abatement programs in participating states.
Minnesota will receive more than $7.98 million from the settlement, with $6.6 million paid within 60 days and the remainder paid over four years.
The agreement calls for McKinsey to prepare tens of thousands of internal documents of its work for Purdue Pharma and other opioid companies for public disclosure online.
Under state law, the Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council will distribute this money into a statewide opioid abatement fund. This is the first multistate opioid settlement to pay the states to address the epidemic.
McKinsey agreed to adopt a strict document retention plan; investigate allegations of an attempt to destroy documents; implement a strict ethics code; and stop advising companies on potentially dangerous Schedule II and III narcotics.
“No amount of money can make Minnesota families and communities whole for the death and destruction that Purdue, other companies, and those that advised them have caused in the opioid crisis,” Ellison said in a statement. “McKinsey played a key role in creating marketing strategies that opioid manufacturers used to drive up sales and profit at the cost of Minnesotans’ lives. This settlement ensures they’re held accountable for it.
“It’s also critically important that we’re requiring McKinsey to disclose its internal documents. We need to shine daylight on exactly how McKinsey, Purdue, and everyone responsible for the opioid crisis caused the death and destruction they did, so that no one can ever do it again,” Ellison said.
The filings describe how McKinsey allegedly contributed to the opioid crisis through marketing and consulting services to opioid manufacturers for over a decade.
The complaint alleges McKinsey advised Purdue on maximizing profits from opioid products, including targeting high-volume opioid prescribers; getting physicians to prescribe more OxyContin to more patients; and circumventing pharmacy restrictions to deliver high-dose prescriptions.
Internal Purdue documents described McKinsey’s work as “turbocharging” its sales of Oxycontin, the complaint alleges.
When states began to sue Purdue’s directors for their work in McKinsey’s marketing, McKinsey partners allegedly began discussing deleting Purdue work documents.
When states began to sue Purdue’s directors for their implementation of McKinsey’s marketing schemes, McKinsey partners allegedly began emailing about deleting documents and emails related to their work for Purdue.
In 2019, 428 Minnesotans have died from an opioid-involved overdose.
Ellison also has a pending lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in a similar case.
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