Ex-pharmaceutical exec gets 5 1/2 years for pushing opioid

The founder of an Arizona pharmaceutical company was ordered to spend 5 1/2 years in prison Thursday for orchestrating a bribery and kickback scheme prosecutors said helped fuel the opioid crisis.

John Kapoor, 76, the former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced in Boston's federal court after a jury found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy last May.

The 10-week trial revealed sensational details about the company's marketing tactics, including testimony that a sales executive once gave a lap dance to a doctor the company was wooing. Kapoor was also ordered to pay a USD 250,000 fine.

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 USD 19,000 a month.

In recent court documents, prosecutors said Kapoor personally approved bribes for doctors who abusively prescribed opioids and also approved financial incentives for sales reps to make sure doctors prescribed the highest doses of the drug.

"Put simply, Kapoor ran Insys without a moral compass, without any concern that his strategies would harm people," they wrote.

Kapoor's lawyers argue the bribery scheme was concocted by other executives at the company.

In a court filing, they said their client has been portrayed as a "caricature" of a mob boss when he is really an "immigrant success story."
"I thought that at least I could make a product that would help others like her so they would not have to suffer like she did."