Thread by @PekingMike

JUST POSTED: New details on McKinsey's work with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. In 2018 two top McKinsey consultants discussed possibly "eliminating" emails and documents. Much more. @waltbogdanich and me.
nytimes.com/2020/11/27/bus…

@waltbogdanich The email McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling sent to his colleague Arnab Ghatak on July 4, 2018.

@waltbogdanich McKinsey also, among several options, proposed that Purdue pay rebates for opioid overdoses or opioid use disorder cased by its product...not to the victims, but to the Pharmacy Benefits Managers like CVS and Anthem. See this slide (this is all from a court filing last week)

@waltbogdanich CVS and Anthem have in recent years been among McKiinsey's biggest clients. Both companies, when asked, said they never did this. The CVS spokesman said: "This program was never brought to our attention, and never would have been implemented had it been proposed."

@waltbogdanich McKinsey also played a key role in helping Purdue beat back FDA rules that would have required doctors to get training before selling OxyContin. It's all in the story. And, yes, the FDA is a big McKinsey client as well. Check out some of the briefing materials:

@waltbogdanich MORE: In mid-Aug 2015 McKinsey prepared to present its "turbocharge" campaign to boost OxyContin sales to the Sacklers. A top Purdue executive, Russell Gasdia, had qualms. The night before, he wrote an email to Purdue execs and McKinsey consultants. He was due to present. Look ..

@waltbogdanich In response, Arnab Ghatak, who five years and hundreds of thousands of opioid deaths later would be in an email conversation about destroying records, forwarded it to McKinsey senior partner Rob Rosiello, writing of Gasdia: "I think it is just stress." MORE!

@waltbogdanich Rob Rosiello may be a familiar name. He went on to become CFO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, infamous for price gauging, raising the price of vital drugs into the stratosphere. Valeant in turn hired McKinsey. Read about it here:
nytimes.com/2019/02/19/bus…

@waltbogdanich And who was the CEO of Valeant while Rob Rosiello was CFO? It was Michael Pearson, who until he went to Valeant in 2008 *headed* McKinsey's global pharmaceutical practice, overseeing the same group of consultants who were working with Purdue on OxyContin. END THREAD

Correction: the turbocharge meeting with the Sacklers was mid August 2013, not 2015. Correct in story, but not in this tweet thread which can’t be edited.