MORGANTOWN – State Attorney General announced Thursday a $10 million settlement with a national marketing firm that helped opioid manufacturers fuel the opioid epidemic.
Morrisey said in a press conference that the lawsuit and settlement with McKinsey & Co. were both filed in Greenbrier County Circuit Court Thursday morning. Morrisey’s office conducted the work in-house without using outside counsel.
This settlement is separate from two others McKinsey announced Thursday. One of those totaled $573 million involving 47 states, Washington, D.C. and five territories. The other was another individual settlement with Washington state for $13 million.
Morrisey explained during the press conference and in the court filing that McKinsey worked with several of the leading opioid manufacturers, most notably Purdue Pharma, from 2004 to 2019.
McKinsey advised Purdue how it could increase opioid sales by targeting physicians and tailoring its messaging to them, and by targeting specific patients. McKinsey staff rode along with Purdue sales reps on their rounds, monitored them and guided them on their messages.
After the opioid crisis exploded, McKinsey advised Purdue to achieve more profits by manufacturing and marketing opioid rescue and treatment medications.
According to the proposed settlement, the state will receive the $10 million within 60 days of entry of the consent order. McKinsey must develop a document retention policy to keep appropriate papers for at least seven years. And non-privileged documents McKinsey produced in connection with opioid investigations will be publicly accessible.
“We proactively provided a lot the data that actually started to tell the story of what was happening with opioids in West Virginia,” he said.
Morrisey touched on a number of other opioid suits the state is still pursuing along with leading a multistate letter asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a progress report on its response to federal legislation to combat opioid abuse.
“We’re doing a lot of great work here in West Virginia,” he said.
Morrisey said filing separate state suits and seeking separate settlements saves the state millions in legal fees and helps produce larger settlements. Participating in a population-based share of the national settlement would have yielded a lower figure.
He said he plans to speak with state legislators to make sure the settlement money goes to fund substance abuse efforts led by the Governor’s Advisory Council on Substance Abuse.
Several West Virginia counties and cities are involved in opioid litigation. Morrisey said they are working to bring all of them together. “If we work together, all West Virginians will benefit from this team approach. We’ll have a much more effective effort.”
McKinsey noted in the settlement that it does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. All parties agreed to the settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of further litigation.
McKinsey announced the settlement on its website, saying of its work with the drug makers, “We recognize that this work, while lawful, fell short of the high standards we set for ourselves and that we did not adequately acknowledge the epidemic unfolding in communities across the country. We decided nearly two years ago to end all work on opioid-specific business and have committed to being part of the solution to this serious challenge.”
McKinsey said it has reaffirmed the commitment it made two years ago not to advise clients on any opioid-related business anywhere in the world.
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