GHOULISH

McKinsey Suggested Purdue Pharma Offer a Rebate for Each OxyContin Overdose

The consulting firm convinced Purdue to aggressively market OxyContin, and the pharmaceutical company would go on to be criminally liable for that decision.

Prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Co. advised Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, to offer a rebate to distributors whenever a patient overdosed on OxyContin in part “to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed,” The New York Times reports. According to bankruptcy court filings, the consulting firm made the suggestion in a 2017 presentation on how to boost OxyContin sales even as overdoses skyrocketed around the country. CVS and Anthem said they never received such rebates, but McKinsey had previously convinced Purdue to aggressively market OxyContin. The pharmaceutical company would go on to be criminally liable for the promotion of that drug. Later, Purdue would ask McKinsey to “dismantle” the marketing plan, with one member of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, saying they should’ve done so five years prior. As the opioid epidemic raged in the United States and Purdue faced dozens of lawsuits, North American McKinsey leaders asked in 2018 whether they needed to prepare for lawsuits by “eliminating all our documents and emails.”