Leading consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has agreed to settle claims by hundreds of U.S. local governments and school districts around the country that it fueled an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and other drug companies.
The deal was disclosed in a court filing Wednesday evening in San Francisco federal court. Its terms were not made public, and McKinsey and a lawyer for the settling plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
McKinsey previously agreed to pay more than $600 million to settle opioid claims brought by all U.S. states and territories, and had argued that those settlements should shield it from local governments’ and school districts’ lawsuits. It has not admitted wrongdoing….