Has agreed to pay $573 million to settle investigations over its alleged role in turbocharging opioid sales as it advised drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma.

The settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and five territories, was announced Thursday by multiple attorneys general.

They must pay to clean up the mess that they made, including North Carolina A G.

Josh Stein.

Purdue Pharma didn't dream up all of its ideas on its own on how to push its pills.

No, it paid global consulting firm McKinsey handsomely for 15 years to design marketing plans to help it sell more pills, tomb or patients at increasing potency for longer periods of time.

McKinsey did not admit liability or wrongdoing.

As part of the agreement, it will turn over tens of thousands of internal documents concerning its work for drugmakers, including Purdue, the manufacturer of OxyContin, which is owned by the wealthy Sackler family and the drugmaker most closely associate ID with the epidemic.

The consulting firm will also continue to investigate whether employees, including two partners, tried to destroy documents in response to probes concerning its work with Purdue, which in October agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin as part of a more than $8 billion settlement.

More than 3300 lawsuits seek toe hold drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies responsible for an opioid epidemic that led to an estimated 450,000 overdose deaths in the United States since 1999.