McKinsey Settles for $78M in Opioid Lawsuit

The consulting firm is accused of aiding deceptive marketing strategies that fueled the opioid crisis.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has agreed to pay $78 million to settle claims by U.S. health insurers and benefit plans that its work with drug companies helped fuel an epidemic of opioid addiction.
The settlement resolves claims by third-party payers such as insurers that provide health and welfare benefits.
Plaintiffs accused McKinsey of contributing to the deadly drug crisis by helping drug manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, create deceptive marketing strategies to increase sales of painkillers.
This settlement is the latest in a series of settlements McKinsey has reached to resolve lawsuits over the U.S. opioid epidemic, having previously paid $641.5 million to state attorneys general and another $230 million to local governments.
Nearly 645,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses involving prescription and illicit opioids from 1999 to 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.