Consulting firm McKinsey & Company is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for its past work advising opioid makers on how to increase sales, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The investigation also seeks to determine whether the company or its employees obstructed justice in record-keeping matters.
McKinsey has long been under scrutiny due to its years of work with various drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma. The consulting firm has paid nearly $1 billion to all 50 states, Native American tribes, local governments and other groups to resolve a slew of lawsuits without admitting wrongdoing.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died because of the opioid crisis.
A McKinsey spokesperson declined to comment. The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
The DOJ investigation lasted for years. Former McKinsey client Endo, a pharmaceutical company, said in a regulatory filing that it received subpoenas relating to McKinsey in December 2020 and May 2021.
A grand jury has been impaneled in Virginia, and the U.S. attorney’s offices for the Western District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts are working together on the investigation, the Journal reported.
News of the investigation underscores how McKinsey’s work on opioids — which the company said it shut down in 2019 — continues to plague the consulting firm.
Turbocharging Project
McKinsey has worked with drugmakers producing opioids for decades, but its work has intensified as the opioid crisis has taken hold.
After Purdue pleaded guilty to deceptively marketing OxyContin in 2007, for example, McKinsey created a plan called “Project Turbocharge” to boost sales. That plan involved doubling Purdue’s marketing budget, pressuring doctors and targeting doctors who were already writing the most OxyContin prescriptions, Seattle prosecutors wrote in a 2022 lawsuit.
Various lawsuits have surfaced in McKinsey’s internal communications, including information about the company’s record-keeping practices. In one 2018 email, for example, a since-fired McKinsey executive wrote to another senior executive about the company’s legal risk.
“It probably makes sense to have a quick conversation with the risk committee to see if we should do anything other than (sic) eliminate all our documents and emails,” wrote former McKinsey partner Martin Elling. “As things get tougher here, someone might turn to us.”
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