Global consulting giant McKinsey & Co., under the leadership of Dominic Barton, pitched Purdue Pharma (Canada) in 2014 on how it could more aggressively market and boost sales of OxyContin and other highly addictive opioids to Canadians
McKinsey & Co. is facing a class-action lawsuit from the B.C. government, which Ottawa plans to join, that accuses the firm of engaging in reckless marketing campaigns to boost opioid sales, placing the Liberal government at odds with a company it has relied on for more than $100-million in contract work since 2015.
Mr. Barton became a pro-bono economic adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the Liberals formed government in 2015 and was later named Canada’s ambassador to China in 2019. Since 2015, the total value of federal contracts awarded to McKinsey has risen to at least $116.8-million, spanning several federal departments. McKinsey has said in court filings that its contracts with Ottawa make up as much as 10 per cent of its gross revenue in Canada.
In recent testimony before parliamentary committees examining those contracts, Mr. Barton, who resigned as envoy to Beijing in December, 2021, to become chairman of Rio Tinto, and Robert Palter, managing partner of McKinsey’s Canadian office, stated the consulting firm has done “no opioid sales and marketing in Canada.”
What the two men did not mention was that McKinsey pitched Purdue Pharma (Canada) to do exactly that on March 18, 2014. A McKinsey memo to Purdue, titled Identifying Growth Opportunities in Canada, states: “We appreciate your interest in driving sales growth and look forward to supporting you.”
The memo to Purdue Pharma (Canada) president Craig Landau went on to say McKinsey was seeking to identify three to five near-term “revenue acceleration activities” for the 2014-2015 period.
It described how McKinsey could help Purdue determine whether there are opportunities to “better target and reach high-potential prescribers” and increase the motivation of Purdue’s pharmaceutical sales representatives by analyzing “what opportunities exist to change incentive compensation to better align the sales force goals to company objectives.”
Alley Adams, head of communications and external relations for McKinsey & Co. Canada, said the company never ended up doing this work for Purdue Pharma (Canada).
“McKinsey is not a manufacturer or distributor of opioids,” the company responds in the documents. “The plaintiff has not alleged material facts necessary to connect McKinsey to any wrongdoing because there is no meaningful connection between McKinsey and the opioid crisis in Canada. For this reason alone, the entire claim should be struck.”
A recently amended version of B.C.’s statement of claim against McKinsey accuses the consulting company of causing Canadian deaths through its past marketing advice to pharmaceutical companies.
B.C. alleges McKinsey consultants designed and implemented plans to market and promote opioid sales in Canada, “despite McKinsey’s knowledge that opioids were addictive and were being aggressively promoted to treat conditions that opioids are not effective in treating.”
The claim accuses McKinsey of working with opioid manufacturers to target physicians with marketing calls and lobbying pharmacies to increase sales, among other “false, reckless, and deceptive marketing campaigns.”
Several parliamentary committees have been studying the relationship between the federal government and McKinsey to determine why federal contracting with the consulting firm has increased steadily from nearly zero since the Liberals formed government in 2015.
In the early years of the Liberal government, Mr. Barton acted as both the head of McKinsey and the chair of former finance minister Bill Morneau’s advisory council on economic growth. The council was supported by McKinsey staff and made several major policy recommendations, many of which were enacted by the government to at least some degree.
Government and McKinsey officials have generally responded by saying it is part of a broader trend in favour of using consultants. The federal government has recently said it is reviewing its approach to consulting and will be looking to find savings in that area.
woke neoliberal Kkkonsultants: oof ouchie that sounds pretty bad have you considered Oxycontin?