'In-Depth Narcotics Experience': McKinsey Advised US Pharmas on How to Turbo Sell Opioids

The US opioid crisis started at the end of the 1990s after doctors began prescribing opioid-based painkillers even in cases of non-severe pain. They were assured that the drug was not addictive, but millions of patients misused the drug and nearly half a million died from overdose or other conditions related to them as a result.

Global consulting giant McKinsey & Company advised several painkillers producers for 15 years on how to "turbocharge" prescription drug sales largely to blame for starting the opioid epidemic in the US, The New York Times has revealed citing over 100,000 documents.

The docs emerged as a part of a settlement deal that McKinsey signed with several state attorneys that sued the company.

Apart from working with Endo, Purdue, and Mallinckrodt, the company also provided "in-depth experience in narcotics" for Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries producing controlled substances. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of US citizens died from overdose, often linked to these very drugs.

How It All Started

According to the disclosed documents, McKinsey helped both Endo and Purdue, the creators of two of the most widespread opioid-based drugs for severe chronic pain, to launch their products Opana and OxyContin in 2006-2008. The firm even advised one of the companies on how to overcome a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) block which it had encountered in 2008.

The FDA blocked Purdue's attempt to release an upgraded version of its OxyContin, which was more difficult to snort or dilute and inject in bloodstream – two methods of the prescription drug's abuse that already had been devised by some of its recipients. In order to help Purdue get the license, McKinsey interviewed an ex-drug dealer on the medication's abuse, prepared docs and even coached the drug firm's officials for meetings with the FDA as the pharmaceutical company knew its drug had been widely abused, the docs suggest.

https://sputniknews.com/20220630/in-depth-narcotics-experience-mckinsey-advised-us-pharmas-on-how-to-turbo-sell-opioids–1096843413.html