Pastor Lance Rhoades: McKinsey opioid settlement isn’t enough for Pennsylvanians
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Few states have been hit as hard by the massive epidemic of opioid use disorder as Pennsylvania. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died over the last few years from substance use disorder of opioids, many that began through legal prescriptions. Countless more families have been torn apart as they suffer through the grief of losing loved ones or navigating years of treatment.
Pennsylvania often finds itself in the top three states (along with Ohio and West Virginia) for the highest rate of substance use disorder deaths. And the death rate due to opioid deaths has spiraled out of control since 2015.
Recently the consulting company McKinsey settled with the attorneys general of 47 states including Pennsylvania for $573 million for the company’s part in the opioid epidemic — but without admitting to any wrongdoing. This is the same consulting company with a sordid past in public health crises.
What would a consulting company have to do with opioids and why would it settle so quickly, one would ask?
To understand the headlines, one needs to look back a few years to when the Federal Drug Administration told Purdue Pharma that it was utilizing unethical ways to market OxyContin. At first, Purdue Pharma complied. But when it saw profits slip, it called in McKinsey. McKinsey helped boost Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin sales by 300% by finding creative ways around the FDA’s mandates. Purdue Pharma has now pled guilty to criminal charges around the sale of opioids.
Hundreds of exhibits describing McKinsey’s work to boost OxyContin sales were made public recently during Purdue’s bankruptcy case in New York.
One of the most egregious items that has come to light is how McKinsey worked with Purdue to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers suffering from opioid use disorder.
Numerous lawsuits have been filed across the country. And in an attempt to move ahead of liability, McKinsey negotiated a $573 million settlement — again, while admitting to no wrongdoing. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro agreed to go along (even though other states including West Virginia and Massachusetts worked to get their own deals).
According to court documents, the phrase used for McKinsey’s plan to aggressively increase sales was “turbocharge.”
When pharmacies cracked down on illegal prescriptions, McKinsey advised Purdue to lobby those same companies’ leaders “to loosen up.”
Those same court documents detail how McKinsey advised Purdue Pharma to pay pharmacies rebates for those who overdosed on OxyContin. It’s worth repeating. Pay pharmacies rebates for those who died. The very idea is so disgusting that it is unimaginable that McKinsey admits to no wrongdoing.
The settlement in which Pennsylvania has entered into is not nearly sufficient. The American Hospital Association estimates that between 2015 and 2018 alone, the opioid crisis has cost our nation $631 billion.
The taxpayers of Pennsylvania have been stuck with the bill for treatment and prevention measures for years. Taxpayers have been stuck with the bill for incarceration and additional police presence and training, as well as the bill for naloxone for overdoses and a huge amount of associated crime that has come from the opioid epidemic.
This settlement is not restitution. It is a drop in the proverbial bucket of the money that Pennsylvania taxpayers have had to endure due to opioid use disorder. Cities, counties and other municipalities hard hit by the opioid crisis should pursue their own civil and criminal cases against McKinsey, especially if the attorney general will not.
This settlement does not come close to paying for the years of pain that families have gone through. It does not come close to paying for the suffering of parents and grandparents who have watched helplessly as the children they loved develop opioid use disorder. And it does not come close to paying for the destruction of our neighborhoods and communities as men and women in expensive suits and designer shoes made billions of dollars while sitting in office buildings and never having to see for themselves the pain they inflicted.
Lance Rhoades is senior pastor at Tree of Life Open Bible Church in Brookline and a leader of the South Pittsburgh Opioid Action Coalition.