Nevada has struck a $45 million settlement deal with global consulting firm McKinsey & Company for its role in advising opioid makers how to sell more prescription painkillers amid a national overdose crisis.
The western state struck a deal after sitting out a multi-state settlement announced earlier this year.
The State's filings in Court describe how McKinsey advised opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, for over a decade. The complaint, filed with the settlement, alleges that McKinsey advised Purdue, and other opioid manufacturers, on how to maximize profits from its opioid products, including targeting high-volume prescribers and using specific messaging to get physicians to prescribe more opioids to more patients.
“The devastation caused by the opioid epidemic affects us all,” said AG Ford. “It’s felt by every mother and father who has lost a child. It’s felt by siblings who have lost a sister or brother. And it’s felt by friends and colleagues who lost one of their own. My Bureau of Consumer Protection has fought on behalf of each of you, and we’re proud of the results of today’s settlement.”
The hard bargaining has allowed it to win a settlement that’s three and a half times larger than the average settlement with the other states.
Authorities say Ford declined to join the multi-state settlement with McKinsey, instead pursuing separate talks with the consultancy firm for several reasons, the most important of which are Nevada’s position in the way it was impacted by the opioid epidemic, the unique legal rights granted to the Nevada Attorney General, and the status of the pending litigation against opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacists and individuals.
McKinsey said the deal reached with Nevada is “consistent with the commitment we made in February to be part of the solution to the opioid epidemic,” and it “believes its past work was lawful.”
undefined
(The Associated Press, Nevada Attorney General's office contributed to this report.)
