McKinsey advised drug companies on how to ‘turbocharge’ opioid sales. Now it’s under criminal investigation. [Video]

The premier consultancy McKinsey & Company is under investigation by the US Department of Justice for its past work advising opioid manufacturers on how to juice sales.

The probe, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, is also investigating whether the firm or its employees obstructed justice relating to recordkeeping.

McKinsey has long been under scrutiny for its yearslong work with various drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma. The consultancy has paid nearly $1 billion to all 50 states, Native American tribes, local governments, and other groups to resolve a host of lawsuits without admitting wrongdoing.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died in the opioid crisis.

A spokesman for McKinsey declined to comment. The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside normal business hours.

The DOJ investigation was years in the making. The former McKinsey client Endo, a pharmaceutical company, said in a regulatory filing that it received subpoenas about McKinsey in December 2020 and May 2021.

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