一 | 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.。 北京时间8月25日，根据ESPN名记Shams Charania报道，金州勇士终于完成了休赛期首笔自由球员签约，以一年260万美元的底薪合同签下后卫布兰登威廉姆斯。这笔签约也让勇士的正式合同名单达到了14人，距离满员还差最后1个名额。 布兰登威廉姆斯上赛季效力于达拉斯独行侠，交出了一份相当亮眼的成绩单：出战66场常规赛（其中15场首发），场均登场22.2分钟，贡献13.0分、2.9篮板、3.9助攻。
二 | 他的整体投篮命中率达到47.2%，罚球命中率也有79.3%，是一位球风像极了欧文的家伙！ 如果只看基础数据，场均13分在22分钟里已经相当高效。而更令人印象深刻的是，威廉姆斯在发展联盟的表现堪称统治级，证明了他具备在高强度比赛中扛起进攻的能力。 但问题也很明显：三分球。 威廉姆斯上赛季的三分命中率只有23.2%，这个数字在当今NBA几乎可以用“灾难”来形容。他的比赛风格非常鲜明：速度快、冲击力强，擅长利用挡拆直杀篮下，也能在转换进攻中推起节奏。
三 | 但对手完全可以绕掩护、收缩内线来应对他，这就会压缩勇士本就拥挤的进攻空间。 那么，他适配勇士吗？ 先说优点，勇士上赛季的第二阵容经常缺乏活力和突破威胁，而威廉姆斯恰恰能在这方面提供补充。薪资专家Keith Smith就表示：“布兰登威廉姆斯对于勇士来说是很好的选择，他能用他的速度带动第二阵容。
四 | ”在库里下场休息的时间段，勇士需要一个能持球突破、撕开防线的后卫，威廉姆斯的突破能力正好填补这个空缺。 再说隐患，首先是三分短板。
五 | 勇士的进攻体系建立在空间和球的流转之上，一个三分命中率只有23.2%的后卫，在场上很容易被对手针对性放空。如果他与追梦等非投射型内线同时在场，进攻空间会被进一步压缩。 其次是位置重叠，签约完成后，勇士后场已经有库里、波杰姆斯基、梅尔顿、穆迪、小佩顿等多位后卫。威廉姆斯能否在激烈的竞争中争取到稳定轮换时间，还是个未知数。 客观来说，一年260万的底薪合同几乎不会占用太多薪资空间，即便威廉姆斯最终没能融入体系，放弃的代价也很低。对于一支在休赛期迟迟没有动作的球队来说，这至少是一个开始。但如果指望一个底薪球员来解决勇士最核心的问题，稳定的第二持球进攻点、锋线投射与内线护筐，那显然不现实。 威廉姆斯能突、能传、能得分，但他是否能适应勇士复杂的传切体系、能否在防守端不被针对，这些都需要训练营和赛季初期来验证。对于勇士球迷来说，这笔签约值得期待，但也不必抱有过高幻想。
六 | 毕竟，260万买来的，是一个有短板但也能创造惊喜的“彩票”。
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