Pharmaceutical Founder Arrested In Alleged Nationwide Opioid Scheme : The Two-Way : NPR
►http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/26/560263997/pharmaceutical-founder-arrested-in-alleged-nationwide-opioid-scheme
On the same day President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, the co-founder of a prominent opioid medication manufacturer has been arrested on fraud and racketeering charges. John Kapoor, former CEO of Insys Therapeutics, has been charged with conspiring to push the company’s signature drug for unacceptable uses through a series of bribes and kickbacks.
Subsys, as the drug is known, transmits the extremely powerful narcotic fentanyl in spray form, allowing it to be placed beneath the tongue for fast, potent pain relief. It is meant only for treating cancer patients suffering from severe pain.
But according to prosecutors, Kapoor and several other former high-ranking executives at the company conspired to bribe doctors to write “large numbers of prescriptions for the patients, most of whom were not diagnosed with cancer.” They also allegedly “conspired to mislead and defraud health insurance providers who were reluctant to approve payment for the drug when it was prescribed for non-cancer patients.”
