Former McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling is also set to plead guilty to obstruction for destroying records related to the case.
The U.S. Department of Justice said McKinsey entered into a deferred prosecution agreement that will expire in five years if it meets the terms.
In the deferred prosecution agreement, prosecutors are demanding that the company reform, among other things, in exchange for a temporary suspension of prosecution. If the accused complies, prosecutors can dismiss the charges.
McKinsey has already settled lawsuits worth almost $1bn (£792m) for its work with Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies.
Purdue Pharma itself pleaded guilty in 2020 to criminal charges related to its role in the US opioid crisis in an $8.3bn (£6.6bn) settlement.
The pharmaceutical company admitted to the possibility of supplying drugs “without legitimate medical purposes”.
Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the mid-1990s. One study discovered that, external until 2002 OxyContin accounted for 68% of oxycodone sales. Another reported, external that abuse of oxycontin and hydrocodone, another commonly prescribed opioid, was the most common of the eight opioids prior to 2004.
Drug addiction and overdose deaths in the U.S. have skyrocketed over the past three decades, fueled initially by prescription opioids and later by the rise of heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Nearly 100,000 people die from drug overdoses in the United States each year. In the year to June 2024, 97,000 people died of overdoses, which is 14% less than a year earlier.
