Earlier this month California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with a coalition of attorneys general from 47 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, announced a $573 million settlement with one of the world’s largest consulting firms, McKinsey & Company (McKinsey). The settlement resolves California’s investigation into the company’s role in advising opioid companies, helping those companies promote their drugs and profiting from the opioid epidemic. This is the first multistate opioid settlement to result in substantial payment to the states to address the epidemic. California will receive $59,613,603.99 from the settlement, which will be used to abate the damage caused by opioids to families and communities in California. 

“The abuse of opioids, not just by those who consumed these drugs but [also] by those who produced, marketed, distributed and dispensed them, has left much of America in mourning. We can’t bring back lost lives, but we can hold ringleaders accountable,” said Becerra. “McKinsey & Company was a player in the unfolding opioids tragedy. Today’s settlement holds McKinsey to account.”

In addition to providing funds to address the crisis, the agreement calls on McKinsey to prepare tens of thousands of its internal documents detailing its work for Purdue Pharma and other opioid companies for public disclosure online. In addition, McKinsey agrees to adopt a strict document retention plan and continue its investigation into allegations that two of its partners tried to destroy documents in response to investigations of Purdue Pharma. The company must implement a strict ethics code that all partners must agree to each year, and it must stop advising companies on potentially dangerous Schedule II and III narcotics. 

The filings describe how McKinsey contributed to the opioid crisis by promoting marketing schemes and consulting services to opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, for over a decade. California’s legal complaint, filed alongside the settlement, details how McKinsey advised Purdue on how to maximize profits from its opioid products, including targeting high-volume opioid prescribers, using specific messaging to get physicians to prescribe more OxyContin to more patients, and circumventing pharmacy restrictions in order to deliver high-dose prescriptions. When states began to sue Purdue’s directors for their implementation of McKinsey’s marketing schemes, McKinsey partners began corresponding about deleting documents and emails related to their work for Purdue.