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'In-Depth Narcotics Experience': McKinsey Advised US Pharmas on How to Turbo Sell Opioids_我的网站

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A | Global consulting giant McKinsey & Company advised several painkillers producers for 15 years on how to "turbocharge" prescription drug sales largely to blame for starting the opioid epidemic in the US, The New York Times has revealed citing over 100,000 documents.,The docs emerged as a part of a settlement deal that McKinsey signed with several state attorneys that sued the company.,Apart from working with Endo, Purdue, and Mallinckrodt, the company also provided "in-depth experience in narcotics" for Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries producing controlled substances. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of US citizens died from overdose, often linked to these very drugs.,How It All Started,According to the disclosed documents, McKinsey helped both Endo and Purdue, the creators of two of the most widespread opioid-based drugs for severe chronic pain, to launch their products Opana and OxyContin in 2006-2008. The firm even advised one of the companies on how to overcome a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) block which it had encountered in 2008.,The FDA blocked Purdue's attempt to release an upgraded version of its OxyContin, which was more difficult to snort or dilute and inject in bloodstream – two methods of the prescription drug's abuse that already had been devised by some of its recipients. In order to help Purdue get the license, McKinsey interviewed an ex-drug dealer on the medication's abuse, prepared docs and even coached the drug firm's officials for meetings with the FDA as the pharmaceutical company knew its drug had been widely abused, the docs suggest.,Crack Pipes: Biden Administration's Handling of US Opioid Crisis Raising Questions, Journo Says15 February, 13:00 GMT,Purdue's main competitor, Endo, also released a new version of its painkiller and tried to get it marked as resistant to crushing (for snorting) and diluting (for injections), but the FDA did not allow the latter citing lack of such properties. Nonetheless, the drug's release was a success and coincided with a drop in abuse-resistant OxyContin's sales.,This came, however, at a cost of local epidemics of previously unseen blood disorders in several US states in 2012 – patients were found to be anemic and suffered from kidney failure. Many of them admitted to abusing updated Opana – the new formulae indeed discouraged from snorting it, but still allowed injection abuse. However, the same component that prevented crushing took a great toll on those who tried to inject the drug to get a better high, leading to red blood cells' destruction and organ damage.,Going on the 'Offensive',The consulting company's involvement in the opioid crisis did not stop at helping the companies to launch their products – it also helped them to boost the sales.,While the pills like the ones produced by Endo, Purdue and Mallinckrodt were originally advertised as not causing additions, US doctors were not always prone to prescribing them, especially when a patient's pain was neither severe nor chronic. According to the revealed documents, McKinsey's consultants helped Purdue, and several other companies, including two J&J subsidiaries, to overcome this "problem".,Starting in 2009, McKinsey developed a "segmentation" strategy for Purdue: its analysts divided the company's customers into groups based on their potential thoughts of the product and then formed distinct messages for each group. The customers in this case were doctors prescribing painkillers and the product was opioid drugs. The strategy targeted even doctors who resorted to opioids only in most extreme cases, ensuring them of OxyContin's safety and trying to convince them that there was no point in making their patients suffer.,The consulting company proposed to achieve this by "[raising] physician comfort levels through appropriate education and support". Purdue tried to convince these doctors that their colleagues had no issues prescribing OxyContin.,By 2014, the US government started to realize a nascent opioid drug problem was underway and introduced new labeling requirements for such drugs as well as instructions to use them only in cases of severe of chronic pain. Around the same time, OxyContin sales started to decline, prompting Purdue to ask for McKinsey's help once again – this time to overcome the government's policy and precautions.,The consultants identified the problem as the company promoting its drug as a less potent opioid amid rampant drug abuse and advised to shift to the "offense" instead, the documents show. They namely advised focusing the salesmen efforts on doctors, who were likely to prescribe OxyContin to a new client not previously taking opioid drugs.,"Physicians with higher OxyContin NBRx to Rx ratio may be more likely to initiate a patient on OxyContin", an extract from a McKinsey presentation for Purdue from January 2014 said.,Around the same time and amid the 2015 HIV concentrated outbreaks in several states linked to the opioid drugs abuse via injections, McKinsey consulted Endo on promoting its Opana. The company was not concerned about what the CDC named "explosive transmission" of HIV and the Opana's role in it, according to the documents. On the contrary, in summer 2015, it helped Endo rededicate most of its salesmen from other products into a "Sales Force Blitz" – the company almost solely dedicated to selling Opana to around 3,000 physicians in the US.,One of McKinsey's consultants was excited over the creation of the "Force", claiming in correspondence with the head of Endo’s painkiller unit that the "fun [begins] on Monday!" with the latter responding "agreed, the fun is just beginning".,Playing Both Sides,One of the strangest revelations in the documents uncovered by the New York Times is that McKinsey managed to play both sides of the opioid crisis tragedy – helping pharmaceutical companies sell more of "not-so-addiction-resistant" drugs, while also assisting the FDA, other government agencies and state governments, in the fight against the epidemic.,In 2017, the FDA finally decided to pull one of the drugs, the more potent Opana, from the market, but not until it made $844 million in revenue with help from McKinsey and played a role in the deaths of thousands of Americans, considered to be the victims of the opioid epidemic. Paradoxically, the same year, McKinsey Senior Partner Tom Latkovic lamented about doctors prescribing opioid painkillers left and right at a health care conference.,"Why do we continue to prescribe, dispense, pay for opioid prescriptions to people that we know, or at least we could know, have an incredibly high propensity to abuse them?" Latkovic wondered.,The bizarre divergence between what McKinsey was advising to the pharmaceutical companies and Latkovic's rhetoric is explained by the fact that he was not a member of the consulting company's pharmaceutical practice, which worked with pharma.,Instead, he and his team worked with state governments and health systems to pin down the ways of tackling the opioid crisis, The New York Times said citing two local officials, who used to work on the issue. Their work, however, was partly complicated by McKinsey's pharmaceutical wing, which wanted to greenlight their draft publications in case they could damage their clients.,North Carolina Rep. Claims Opioid Crisis 'Affects Every Community' in US Amid Drug Trafficking Surge19 December 2021, 01:36 GMT,Eventually in 2019, McKinsey finally stopped advising its top client, Perdue, but not until their ties became public during one of the litigations related to the opioid epidemic and initiated by US authorities. One such litigation eventually had McKinsey pay $600 million in settlement without admitting guilt, as well as release the documents related to its work with the pharmaceutical companies.。

米兰SOSO队夺得NBA城市挑战赛成都站冠军8月7日至9日，首届NBA城市挑战赛在成都交子音乐广场热力启幕。经过三天的激烈角逐，米兰SOSO队最终脱颖而出，问鼎成都站冠军。这项面向民间篮球爱好者的全新赛事，以篮球为桥梁，将运动激情与城市文化紧密相连，让每一位参与者在球场上挥洒热爱，于赛场外感受蜀地独特的文化韵味。现场球迷热情观战经过三天的较量，决赛在米兰SOSO队与特工队之间展开。

B | 开场哨响不久，米兰SOSO便以一次凌厉的快攻首开纪录。双方在防守端均拼尽全力，身体对抗激烈，直到三分钟后，特工队才艰难打破得分荒。此后，米兰SOSO外线手感火热，连续命中三分球，并通过内外配合多点开花，首节结束便建立起两位数的领先优势。

C | 下半场易边再战，米兰SOSO继续扩大战果，将分差进一步拉大。特工队命中率明显下滑，虽顽强追赶，却始终无法撼动巨大的比分差距。最终，米兰SOSO成功夺得NBA城市挑战赛成都站冠军。

D | NBA传奇球星德隆·威廉姆斯现场助阵成都站现场，NBA传奇球星德隆·威廉姆斯惊喜亮相，这也是他首次踏上成都的土地。在主持人的热情引导下，他入乡随俗，用刚学会的四川话喊出“德隆、德隆，生意兴隆”和“锦绣天府，安逸四川”，瞬间点燃全场。他不仅与球迷和参赛球员一同切磋球技，还抽身探访成都街头，在火锅香气与老巷烟火中，细细品味这座城市的闲适与活力。

E | 独具蜀地文化的拉拉队表演而赛场之外，同样为球迷准备了满满惊喜。本次比赛落地城市潮流地标——成都交子音乐广场，潮流好物市集、主题打卡点位与地道成都美食站点一应俱全。

F | 观赛之余，还可以一站式游玩打卡，在纯正的NBA级篮球氛围中感受热血对决，转身便能扎进老成都的市井烟火，真正做到看球、逛吃两不误，让“热血篮球”与“烟火成都”在此完美合拍。球场之外，球迷体验潮流好物首届NBA城市挑战赛的落地，不仅为无数民间篮球追梦者提供了闪耀自我的舞台，更让广大篮球爱好者在家门口便体验到了NBA级别的赛事氛围。从专业的赛场布置到高规格的执裁标准，从现场的火热对抗到观众的激情助威，每一个细节都让球员和球迷感受到了职业赛场般的礼遇与荣耀。与此同时，赛事深入践行全民健身理念，以篮球为纽带，降低参与门槛、激发运动热情，让更多人走上球场、享受运动，真正将竞技体育的感染力转化为全民健康的行动力。