Blumenthal Urges Federal Investigation Into Conflict of Interest in McKinsey's FDA Work on Opioids
“It is critical that the OIG investigate these clear conflicts of interest to understand the impact the McKinsey’s conduct had and continues to have on the FDA, and why the FDA’s contracting policies and procedures allowed such a breach of existing conflicts of interest rules to occur.”
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Amid alarming reports revealing McKinsey & Company was advising the federal government on opioid matters while working for opioid makers, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to open an investigation into the company’s practices related to this conflict of interest and ensure it does not happen again.
“At the same time that McKinsey was consulting for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) drug-regulation division on pharmaceutical matters, it was also advising pharmaceutical industry clients, including Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson, on the same or similar issue. In fact, at times, the same consultants were advising both the FDA and the private sector companies it regulated on the same issues,” wrote Blumenthal to HHS Inspector General Christi Grimm.
Citing examples of watered down opioid safety plans released by the FDA following its work with McKinsey, Blumenthal emphasized the significant impacts of this conflict of interest on Americans: “The breach in policy that resulted in McKinsey’s conflicted consulting work at the FDA may have had a significant impact on Americans—particularly those who have suffered from opioid abuse.”
Blumenthal emphasized that the failure to prevent this conflict of interest raises concerns about existing protocols in place, and urged the OIG’s office to “conduct an investigation to understand what happened in this case, identify and hold accountable individuals or entities responsible for the failures, and ensure that such egregious conflicts of interest and breaches of FDA policy do not occur again.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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