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| 麻州總檢察官奚莉(Murau Healey)。視頻截圖) |
總檢察官們調查麥肯錫公司和鴉片類藥物公司合作，幫助那些公司推廣，並從這些鴉片類藥物的流行而獲利的行為。
根據今日遞入薩福克郡高等法院的訴狀，以及判決同意書條款，麥肯錫公司將支付5億7300萬元，用於資助受影響者預防，治療及恢復。其中1300萬元將付給麻州。
這是涉及多州的鴉片類藥物和解案，第一次得到那麼大一筆款項來分給各州用於處理藥物濫用。這一協議仍待法院批准。
AG’s
Office Secures $573 Million Settlement With McKinsey for ‘Turbocharging’ Opioid
Sales and Profiting From the Epidemic
Massachusetts to Receive $13 Million; Case Is
First Multistate Opioid Settlement to Result in Substantial Payment to Address
the Epidemic
2/04/2021
- Office of Attorney General Maura Healey
BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey,
with a coalition of attorneys general representing 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, resolving
investigations into the company’s role working for opioid companies, helping
those companies promote their drugs, and profiting from the opioid epidemic.
Under the terms of the consent judgment, filed today along with
a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court,
McKinsey will pay a total of $573 million – with $13 million going to
Massachusetts – which will be used to fund prevention, treatment, and recovery
efforts. This is the first multistate opioid settlement to result in
substantial payment to the states to address the epidemic. The judgment
remains subject to court approval.
“Today’s agreement sets a new standard for
accountability in one of the most devastating crises of our time,” AG Healey
said. “As a result, our communities will receive substantial resources for
treatment, prevention, and recovery services, and families who have seen their
loved ones hurt and killed by the opioid epidemic will have the truth exposed
about McKinsey’s illegal and dangerous partnership with Purdue Pharma.”
McKinsey is required to turn over tens of
thousands of internal documents detailing its work for Purdue Pharma and other
opioid companies for public disclosure online. According to the complaint,
McKinsey designed Purdue’s marketing schemes, including a plan to “turbocharge”
OxyContin sales at the height of the opioid epidemic.
Today’s filings, with evidence about
McKinsey’s misconduct first uncovered by AG Healey’s Office, describe how
McKinsey contributed to the opioid crisis by selling marketing schemes and
consulting services to opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue
Pharma, for over a decade. The complaint, filed with the settlement,
details how McKinsey advised Purdue to maximize its OxyContin profits,
including by:
- Focusing on higher, more lucrative dosages and
increased sales rep visits to high-volume opioid prescribers;
- Targeting physicians with specific messaging to
convince them to prescribe more OxyContin to more patients;
- Encouraging opioid manufacturers to band together to
“defend against strict treatment by the FDA” on risk mitigation efforts
that could have reduced high doses and saved lives; and
- Delivering OxyContin directly to patients through
mail-order pharmacies to circumvent retail pharmacy restrictions on high
dose, suspicious prescriptions.
When states began to sue Purdue’s directors
for their implementation of McKinsey’s marketing schemes, McKinsey partners
began emailing about deleting documents and emails related to their work for
Purdue.
Under the terms of today’s settlement,
McKinsey will pay $573 million, with a total of $558 million distributed to
states to abate the opioid crisis, and $15 million to fund investigation
expenses and support the document repository. In Massachusetts, today’s
settlement will fund the state’s newly created Opioid Recovery and Remediation
Fund to help expand access to opioid use disorder prevention, intervention,
treatment, and recovery options.
Along with the payment and the disclosure of
documents, the agreement also imposes court-ordered ethics rules that McKinsey
must implement, including strict company-wide standards for document retention,
and conflict disclosures on state contracts. In addition, McKinsey agreed to
stop advising companies on potentially dangerous Schedule II and III
narcotics.
Today’s filings are the latest action AG
Healey has taken to combat the opioid epidemic and hold accountable those who
are responsible for creating and fueling the crisis. Since taking office, AG
Healey has prioritized combating the opioid epidemic through a
multi-disciplinary approach that includes enforcement, policy, prevention, and
education efforts. Learn more about AG Healey’s work to combat the opioid
epidemic here [mass.gov].
The states’ investigation, first launched by
AG Healey’s Office, was led by an executive committee made up of the
attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New
York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont. The executive
committee is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North
Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas,
Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and the
territories of American Samoa, Guam the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico,
and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Handling the case for Massachusetts are
Assistant Attorneys General Jenny Wojewoda and Sandy Alexander, Senior
Enforcement Counsel Gillian Feiner, and Health Care Division Chief Eric Gold,
all of AG Healey’s Health Care and Fair Competition Bureau, with assistance
from Legal Analyst Julia Walsh, Paralegals Philipp Nowak and Indira Rao, Health
Care Division Assistant Attorney General Ethan Marks, Civil Investigator Marlee
Greer, Assistant Attorney General and eDiscovery Attorney Paula McManus, and
Digital Evidence Lab Director Chris Kelly.
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