By Thaler
A former McKinsey & Co partner has sued the global consulting firm, claiming it defamed him and made him a “scapegoat” to distract attention from its work advising OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other manufacturers of opioid pain medications.
Arnab Ghatak, who was fired in 2021, filed the suit in New York state court on Friday – just two days after it was revealed that McKinsey’s role in the US opioid epidemic was being probed by the US Justice Department.
Part of the DOJ probe concerns whether McKinsey obstructed justice – an inquiry related to McKinsey’s disclosure that it had fired two partners who communicated about deleting documents related to their opioids work, people familiar with the matter said.
One of those partners was Ghatak, who had been a senior partner and McKinsey’s global head of medical affairs.
Ghatak also alleged that McKinsey and its global managing partner, Bob Sternfels, lied to Congress and the public about his role improperly deleting emails.
Ghatak said in his lawsuit that when Sternfels testified before a House of Representatives committee in 2022, both partners were terminated for violating a document retention policy that Ghatak insists does not even exist.
Rather, Ghatak claims he became of victim of McKinsey’s effort “to create a scapegoat as a diversion from their own decades long work in non abuse deterrent opioids.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from McKinsey and Sternfels, who was also named as a defendant.
A spokesperson for McKinsey called the complaint “entirely meritless.”
“We terminated him for serious violations of our professional standards,” the McKinsey spokesperson said. “We fully stand by our decision to terminate Dr. Ghatak and by our public statements on the matter.”
McKinsey has already agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to settle widespread opioid lawsuits and other related legal actions by states, local governments, school districts, Native American tribes and health insurers accusing it of contributing to a deadly US opioid addiction epidemic.
In 2019 McKinsey vowed to no longer advise clients on any opioid-realted businesses – the same year the consulting giant’s ties to Purdue Pharma came to light alongside a trove of documents filed in pharmaceutical firm’s bankruptcy case at the time.
The files showed McKinsey’s role in advising members of the Sackler family, which owned Oxy-maker Purdue Pharma, as opioid deaths mounted, The New York Times reported.
Included was a disturbing 2017 presentation where McKinsey estimated that 2,484 customers of drug store chain CVS would overdose or become addicted to opioids in 2019 and it would pay a rebate of $14,810 “per event.”
Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty in 2020 to three criminal charges for its role the national opioid epidemic, which the Federal Communications Commission estimates killed upwards of 560,000 people in the US.
As recently as 2021, McKinsey said it will pay nearly $600 million to settle allegations that it fueled the nationwide opioid crisis by helping Purdue push addictive painkillers.
Some $573 million of that will go to 47 states and the District of Columbia, which accused the white-shoe consulting firm of helping Purdue “turbocharge” OxyContin sales as a deadly wave of overdoses gripped the nation.
McKinsey did not admit wrongdoing in any of its civil settlements.
Authorities said that deal is the first multi-state opioid settlement to provide a “substantial payment” to help states address the drug crisis.
Washington State reached a separate $13.5 million deal with McKinsey, and West Virginia was also planning an opioid-related announcement.
