Mckinsey To Pay 650m After Advising How To Sell More Addictive Painkillers

McKinsey Co has agreed to pay 650 million R11.6 billion to resolve a US Department of Justice investigation into the consulting firms work advising opioid manufacturer OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on how to boost sales.

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 US 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 McKinseys work for Purdue, according to court papers. He is scheduled to enter his plea on January 10.