Opioid-Maker Insys To Pay $225M To Settle Federal Fraud Charges Over Kickbacks, Illegal Marketing Tactics
Insys Therapeutics agreed to pay $225 million to end criminal and civil investigations of allegations that the opioid manufacturer used a system of bribes to get doctors to illegally prescribe its highly addictive product, federal officials announce. Meanwhile, in Ohio a doctor is charged with 25 counts of murder stemming from opioid prescriptions.
The New York Times:
Insys, The Opioid Drug Maker, To Pay $225 Million To Settle Fraud Charges
The opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics agreed to pay $225 million to settle federal criminal and civil charges that it illegally marketed a highly addictive fentanyl painkiller to doctors, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. As part of the deal, a subsidiary of Insys will plead guilty to five counts of mail fraud and the company will pay a $2 million fine and $28 million in forfeiture, according to a statement from the United States attorney’s office in Massachusetts. The company will also pay $195 million to settle allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act, which involves defrauding the federal government through drug sales to health care programs like Medicare. (Thomas, 6/5)
The Associated Press:
Opioid Maker Agrees To Pay $225M To Settle Federal Probes
The settlement stems from criminal and civil probes into Insys Therapeutics Inc.'s scheme to pay doctors in exchange for prescriptions of the drug meant for cancer patients with severe pain. It comes a month after Insys Founder John Kapoor and four other former executives of the Chandler, Arizona-based company were convicted of bribing doctors across the country to prescribe the drug known as Susbys. (Balsamo and Durkin Richer, 6/5)
The Washington Post:
Maker Of Addictive Fentanyl Spray Agrees To Pay $225 Million For Prescriptions-For-Cash Scheme
The release noted the story of a physician assistant who worked at a pain clinic in New Hampshire. The PA, who was not named, joined Insys’s program the second year the drug was on the market — he hadn’t written a prescription the first year it was — and wrote 672 prescriptions for Subsys, for which he received $44,000 in kickbacks, the release said. (Rosenberg, 6/5)
Reuters:
Ohio Doctor Charged With 25 Counts Of Murder For Giving Fatal Opioid Doses
An Ohio doctor was charged with 25 counts of murder for administering high and sometimes fatal doses of opioid painkillers to dozens of very sick patients, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The doctor, William Husel, turned himself in to Columbus police following a six-month long investigation into what Mount Carmel Hospital called his administration of "inappropriate" doses of fentanyl to patients, Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien said at a news conference. (6/5)
In other news on the crisis —
Nashville Tennessean:
Medical Examiner: Nashville Sees Spike In Fatal Drug Overdoses
A spike in recent fatal overdoses could be tied to fentanyl-laced drugs in Davidson County, public safety officials have warned. Since June 10, the Davidson County Medical Examiner's office has investigated at least 10 deaths believed to be fatal drug overdoses, according to Metro Public Health. Of those deaths, half have been associated with an unknown white or brown powder. (Timms, 6/5)
