McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm, is reportedly being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly helping fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic by guiding drug manufacturers on strategies to boost sales.
According to reports, a grand jury in Virginia has been empaneled to investigate the role that McKinsey played in consulting for the largest drug manufacturers to boost sales of highly-addictive prescription opioids.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The criminal probe centers on consulting advice McKinsey gave to drugmaker clients including Purdue, Endo International and Mallinckrodt that previously sparked mass civil litigation against the firm. Government and private plaintiffs filed hundreds of civil lawsuits in recent years accusing the consulting firm of exacerbating opioid addiction, an allegation that McKinsey has denied. [Emphasis added]
In 2021, McKinsey reached a settlement with all 50 states, five U.S. territories, and Washington, D.C., to pay $642 million to resolve civil opioid-related litigation against the firm, without admitting wrongdoing. The firm in 2023 reached separate deals totaling $347 million with Native American tribes, public school districts, insurance companies and municipal governments, also without admitting wrongdoing. [Emphasis added]
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McKinsey’s former clients Purdue, Endo, and Mallinckrodt filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy while facing mass lawsuits alleging they sold drugs through misleading marketing practices and fueled addiction. McKinsey helped Purdue, the closely held maker of the painkiller OxyContin, develop an initiative to boost drug sales and marketing, according to records released after Purdue went bankrupt in 2019. [Emphasis added]
Likewise, Reuters details the investigation into McKinsey:
The probe is focused on whether McKinsey engaged in a criminal conspiracy when advising Purdue and other pharmaceutical manufacturers on marketing strategies to boost sales of prescription painkillers that led to widespread addiction and fatal overdoses, two of the people said. [Emphasis added]
The Justice Department is also investigating whether McKinsey conspired to commit healthcare fraud when its consulting work for companies selling opioids allegedly resulted in fraudulent claims being made to government programs such as Medicare, they said. [Emphasis added]
Prosecutors are also looking at whether McKinsey obstructed justice, an inquiry related to McKinsey’s disclosure that it had fired two partners who communicated about deleting documents related to their opioids work, the people said. [Emphasis added]
More than 100,000 Americans are dying annually from drug overdoses and poisonings. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have skyrocketed in the last two decades.
In 1999, for instance, about 3,400 Americans died from drug overdoses involving prescription opioids. By 2021, those deaths had risen to nearly 17,000.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
