Consulting firm McKinsey agrees to $78 million settlement with insurers over opioids
Consulting firm McKinsey and Co. has agreed to pay $78 million to settle claims by insurers and health care funds that their work with pharmaceutical companies helped fuel an opioid addiction crisis.
The agreement was disclosed late Friday in documents filed in federal court in San Francisco. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.
Under the agreement, McKinsey would establish a fund to reimburse insurers, private benefit plans and others for some or all of the costs of prescription opioids.
The insurers alleged that McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma – the maker of OxyContin – to develop and employ aggressive marketing and sales tactics to overcome doctors' reservations about the highly addictive drugs. Insurers said this forced them to pay for prescription opioids instead of safer, non-addictive and cheaper medications, including over-the-counter painkillers. They also had to pay for subsequent opioid addiction treatment.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, nearly 280,000 people in the U.S. died from prescription opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2021. Insurers argued that McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma even after the extent of the opioid crisis became clear.
The settlement is the latest in a yearslong effort to hold McKinsey accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic. In February 2021, the company agreed to pay nearly $600 million to US states, the District of Columbia and five US territories. In September, the company announced a separate $230 million settlement agreement with school districts and local governments.
Asked for comment Saturday, McKinsey referred to a statement it released in September.
“As we have previously stated, we continue to believe that our past work was lawful and deny allegations to the contrary,” the company said, adding that it has reached a settlement to avoid protracted litigation.
McKinsey said it stopped advising clients on opioid-related matters in 2019.