Pharma Billionaire’s Tactics Come Under Scrutiny As Opioid Crisis Rages On
Insys Therapeutics' co-founder John N. Kapoor is facing accusations from prosecutors that the company bribed doctors to prescribe large, off-label doses of its painkiller.
The Wall Street Journal:
Fentanyl Billionaire Comes Under Fire As Death Toll Mounts From Prescription Opioids
Before they were arrested last year, Alabama doctors John Couch and Xiulu Ruan were prized customers of Insys Therapeutics Inc., maker of a powerful and highly addictive type of synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. Drs. Couch and Ruan prescribed a combined $4.9 million of the painkiller, called Subsys, to Medicare patients in 2013 and 2014, among the most of any doctors in the U.S., federal data show. Insys, based in Chandler, Ariz., went to unusual lengths to keep these high-prescribing doctors happy. (Walker, 11/22)
