Insys Founder Sentenced To 5.5 Years In Prison For Scheme That Involved Bribing Doctors To Prescribe Opioids
Federal prosecutors have said that Insys, based in Arizona, embarked on an intensive marketing plan — including paying doctors for sham educational talks and luring others with lap dances — to sell its under-the-tongue fentanyl spray, Subsys, which was federally approved to treat patients with cancer. Meanwhile, McKesson has reached a settlement with its investors over allegations it missed suspicious opioid shipments.
The New York Times:
Insys Founder Gets 5½ Years In Prison In Opioid Kickback Scheme
A federal judge sentenced John Kapoor, the founder of the opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, to five and a half years in prison Thursday for his role in a racketeering scheme that bribed doctors to prescribe a highly addictive opioid and misled insurers. The case had been closely watched because it represented a rare criminal inquiry into the practices of a drug company that aggressively sold painkillers while the nation was in the grip of a deadly opioid epidemic that killed thousands of people in the last decade. (Thomas, 1/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Founder Of Opioid Maker Sentenced To 5½ Years In Prison
Two other senior Insys executives, ex-CEO Michael Babich and former vice president of sales Alec Burlakoff, pleaded guilty before last year’s trial and testified against their former colleagues as part of cooperation agreements with the government. The convictions marked the first successful prosecution of top pharmaceutical industry executives for illegally promoting prescription opioids, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, which brought the case. (Walker and Kamp, 1/23)
The Associated Press:
Ex-Pharmaceutical Exec Gets 5 1/2 Years For Pushing Opioid
Kapoor and others were accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to doctors across the United States to prescribe the company’s highly addictive oral fentanyl spray, known as Subsys. The bribes were paid in the form of fees for sham speaking engagements that were billed as educational opportunities for other doctors. Prosecutors also said the company misled insurers to get payment approved for the drug, which is meant to treat cancer patients in severe pain and can cost as much as $19,000 a month. (1/23)
Boston Globe:
Former Insys Executive Who Rapped As Giant Fentanyl Bottle Gets 26 Months
A former high-ranking Insys Therapeutics executive who dressed as a giant fentanyl spray bottle in a rap video that championed the firm’s addictive opioid painkiller was sentenced to 26 months in prison Thursday for conspiring to bribe doctors to prescribe the drug, despite a prosecutor’s plea for a lighter sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak sought only 20 months for Alec Burlakoff, who became a star witness for the government. Without the cooperation of the former vice president of sales, Wyshak said, it would have been hard, if not impossible, for prosecutors to convict five other former Insys executives at last year’s trial of bribing doctors to prescribe the painkiller to patients who shouldn’t have gotten it. (Saltzman, 1/23)
Bloomberg:
McKesson Board Agrees To $175 Million Accord In Opioid Case
McKesson Corp.’s board reached a $175 million settlement with investors who claimed directors failed to maintain adequate internal systems for spotting suspicious opioid shipments, as the U.S.’s largest drug distributor continues to grapple with claims it helped fuel a public-health crisis tied to the painkillers. (Feeley, 1/23)
And in other news on the opioid crisis —
Politico:
HHS Forgets To Renew Trump’s Opioid Emergency Declaration
For nine days, the nation's opioid crisis was no longer considered a "public health emergency" after the Trump administration failed to renew a two-year-old declaration that expired last week. An HHS spokesperson on Thursday night said that the lapse had been corrected. "This was a clerical error," the spokesperson said. "The public health emergency for opioids has been renewed." (Diamond, 1/23)
The Associated Press:
Missouri Doctor Indicted In Alleged Fentanyl Fraud Scheme
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a southwest Missouri physician accused of receiving tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks for prescribing fentanyl spray to hundreds of patients in a $2.4 million medical fraud scheme. Randall D. Halley, 63, of Nixa, was charged in a 29-count indictment in Springfield. (1/23)
The Knoxville News Sentinel:
Walgreens, Food City Were Opioid Profiteers, Tennessee AG Says
The role of Tennessee’s pharmacies in flooding the black market with opiates and fueling a deadly epidemic of addiction — is revealed in a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry by the state attorney general’s office. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III is using the Knox County Circuit Court lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen to build a case of deliberate drug trafficking — and racketeering — by the Pennsylvania opioid distributor and its top 12 Tennessee customers. The records were obtained by Knox News through a successful lawsuit to make them public. The lion’s share of the dozen high-volume Tennessee customers were located at the epicenter of specific opioid epidemics — Knoxville and the Tri-Cities. And, according to lawsuit records, each of those pharmacies knowingly dispensed opiates to drug dealers and seekers. (Satterfield, 1/23)
NH Union Leader:
Chronic Pain Patients Plead For Prescribing Reform
Chronic-pain patients pleaded with a state Senate committee this week to eliminate “pre-determined” limits on prescription opioids they said threaten to leave them in unrelenting agony and contemplating suicide. They embraced a groundbreaking bill (SB 546) aimed at protecting these patients and the doctors who treat them by allowing each provider to “administer care sufficient to treat a patient’s chronic pain based on ongoing, objective evaluations of the patient without fear of reprimand or discipline. ”The legislation would free doctors from having to stop or restrict medication like opioid painkillers based on pre-determined guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that New Hampshire and many other states have adopted into their own rules. (Landrigan, 1/23)
Carroll County Times:
This Carroll County Drug User Got Sober, As Overdoses Declined In 2019. But Officials Aren’t Celebrating Yet.
But a decrease in overdoses is not a cessation in overdoses, and while Carroll officials have been cautiously hopeful about the downturn in the numbers, they’ve been left wondering what is responsible, whether it’s fair to claim even a small victory and if the numbers accurately reflect reality at all.Tempered optimism“It’s easy to look at numbers like that and say, ‘OK, we’re seeing a downward trend.’ But it is an absolutely struggle and fight day to day,” Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees said. “I am always cautious about raising my arms in victory and say, ‘Look at us,’ because I live in a world where things can go wrong rather quickly.” (Kelvey, 1/24)
