Drug company founder indicted in US-wide opioid conspiracy

[sl8]

Source: AP News

PHOENIX (AP) — U.S. prosecutors brought a fraud and racketeering case Thursday against the billionaire founder of an opioid medication maker that has faced increasing scrutiny from authorities across the country over allegations of pushing prescriptions of powerful painkillers amid a drug epidemic that is claiming thousands of lives each year.

The charges against Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor came the same day President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency.


The case naming Kapoor follows indictments against the company’s former CEO and other executives and managers on allegations that they provided kickbacks to doctors to prescribe a potent opioid called Subsys.

In the new indictment, Kapoor, 74, of Phoenix, and the other defendants are accused of offering bribes to doctors to write large numbers of prescriptions for the fentanyl-based pain medication that is meant only for cancer patients with severe pain. Most of the people who received prescriptions did not have cancer.

...

Read more: https://apnews.com/ebb468cda34c43a4a569f1cc72ab3e78/Drug-company-founder-indicted-in-US-wide-opioid-conspiracy

[pbmus]

1. Wow, had no idea this would happen this fast...

[Aristus]

3. The epidemic is largely hitting red states and killing off Trump-voters.

That's the only reason for the rapid action on the issue.

Cue the screaming of "There are doctors out there who won't prescribe these medications for people like me who really need them!" in 3......2......1......

[pbmus]

5. ...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029753898

[BigmanPigman]

12. Me too...and we are not alone.

Severe pain is real and now doctors do not give you anything stronger than an aspirin. I was misdiagnosed for months and in severe pain 24/7 to the point that I was planning to jump off of a bridge. I got a little codeine pill from a neighbor and it had no effect. By the time I had to check myself into a hospital I had almost destroyed both my liver and stomach from the handfuls of acetaminophen, ibuprofen and aspirin I had taken for 6 months. It turns out that all of my symptoms were classic signs of my painful disease and 3/4 of my pancreas is scar tissue and can not be repaired...it was severe pain and I was not exaggerating. And it will continue until I die. In fact the pain is so bad that I will need a series of expensive surgeries until I die which I can't afford since I can't work and have the ACA with NO subsidies NOW...fuck the fake prez.

[CountAllVotes]

25. How sad

Sorry to read abt. your situation.

Those NSAIDS can kill you and that is a fact. Why they don't advertise this is beyond my comprehension as they almost killed me in 2009. They had eaten my insides up as they did not care to deal with the pain properly and were rx'ing 2400 mg. of ibuprofen a day for the pain (which did nothing).

I woke up in the hospital noting an IV of blood being infused into me. I was stuck in that ICU for two weeks thanks to their absolute failure to manage my pain properly. I had four blood transfusions by the time I finally got out of the ICU and today the pain is worse than ever thanks to the formation of severe adhesions from all of the surgeries I required from the damage done by the NSAIDS they were RX'ing for the pain that I live with.

Today, for now, it is being managed.

I am sorry to read abt. your situation and I hope that being you have a concrete diagnosis that you can find the help you require for the pain that you suffer from.

[TheFrenchRazor]

16. well, if the shoe fits. maybe some day you'll find out what severe chronic pain is like, and

god-willing, you will only have doctors such as yourself, if you are one. don't you think that doctors and their patients should decide what medication is most appropriate for them, instead of politicians?

[TheFrenchRazor]

18. i bet you've never had a patient who was "really" in pain, have you?... because by definition, any

anyone who says they are in serious pain and would like some relief is a sissy at best, and quite probably nothing more than a dirty druggie looking for a fix, right?

[Aristus]

20. I'm a Physician Assistant, not a doctor.

And I get drug-seekers all the time. It comes with the territory.

I don't dismiss claims of pain out-of-hand, despite the fact that pain is the most subjective symptom in all of medicine. If I'm deaing with a 57 year-old construction worker with a documented history of degenerative joint disease and spinal stenosis, I take his claims very seriously, and treat appropriately.

But if I walk into a room with the chart of a twenty year-old kid with no significant adverse history, in no visible distress, blood pressure, heart rate and respiration all within normal limits, a claim of 10/10 pain (the kind of pain you would have if you were on fire, for example), and he tells me that Percocet is the only thing that works for his pain, well, let's just say he won't be walking out with a prescription for Percocet, that's all.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. It's a shame...

the pharmaceutical industry can't formulate pain relief drugs for those that need them that are not so damned addictive. Even so, all people who use them legitimately do not become addicted, and many use them wisely.

Many do however, abuse the privilege, as do hundreds of unscrupulous doctors and pharmacies. Human greed and the need to feel good both seem to have no limits.

I hope the day comes when legitimate users of pain meds can gain ready access to pain management clinics. At least where I live, it takes forever for patients to get into one, and most just give up.

Keep up the good work you're doing!

[Aristus]

27. Thank you. And I agree. If these medications were not addictive, I would have little objection

to prescribing them.

There are other considerations, too. Addiction is simply the best-known adverse effect of opioid medications. #2 is tolerance - the body becoming accustomed to the analgesic effect of the medication, so that ever-increasing doses are required in order to achieve the same level of analgesia.

Opioid medications also cause respiratory depression, so if a pain patient has concurrent severe COPD, for example, narcotic medications can cause harm to the patient. They also cause constipation, so if a patient has concurrent diverticulosis or diverticulitis, or is otherwise at risk for bowel perforation, etc., opioids for their pain would also cause harm.

People who just want 'my Percs' don't have to think of these things, but we medical providers do. And it brings us in for a lot of abuse, as you can see.

[MindPilot]

30. The entire medical profession tends to treat people more like suspects than patients.

When i went to the ER with a badly sprained / broken ankle after taking a fast trip down the stairs, the very first question from ER staff was "how much have you had to drink?" (answer: nothing.)

Another trip to the ER with severe abdominal pain. The Dr asks me a few basic questions, then says, "do I have to worry about alcohol withdrawal?" I responded with "why, did you quit drinking?" She huffed, turned and walked away. ! was there for 10 hours and got IV fluids, other than that, nothing.

These days, talking to a medical person, I feel more like I'm talking to a detective, and I have to be really careful what I say.

[Aristus]

31. There's no question that there are a lot of finger-wagging moralists in the medical profession.

But most of us are just trying to do a good job. If a dry-waller messes up, he can rip it out and try again. If we mess up, people can die.

The alcohol/substance abuse questions may simply be a provider trying not to miss an underlying cause. The spectre of lawsuits hangs over everything we do. We are a very litigious society.

[karynnj]

26. This is not "new", here is a December 22, 2016 article saying they are facing indictment

A new criminal case raises question about how some in the medical community are pushing the use of addictive painkillers.

Six former executives and managers from Arizona-based drugmaker, Insys Therapeutics, face conspiracy charges over what a federal prosecutor calls a “racketeering crime.”

In this case, according to the indictment, the former employees of the drug manufacturer are alleged to have rewarded doctors for prescribing their spray version of the opiate fentanyl, even when it wasn’t medically appropriate.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/insys-therapeutics-conspiracy-charges-bribing-doctors-fentanyl-subsys-opioid-addiction-painkillers/

[Dustlawyer]

2. At the end of the article is says they donated $500,000 to try to defeat

medical marijuana in Arizona. That is what needs to be legal and help these addicts off of opioids!

[questionseverything]

33. yep

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-is-saving-lives-in-colorado-study-finds/?utm_term=.b698e7d029ae

[TeamPooka]

4. are the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma next?

a must read article in the New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. I certainly hope so

Of course the Sacklers are white and Kapoor is an Indian immigrant. I only bring this up because out of all the nefarious bank activity that led to the crash in 2007, only one bank was prosecuted; Abacus Bank, a small bank in Chinatown, NYC.

[Ligyron]

6. Fentanyl is NOT only for end of life situations.

Or cancer patients with severe pain issues. Think auto wrecks, industrial accident etc...

[iluvtennis]

8. And I read this Subsys is a sublingual spray form of Fentanyl so you get your high quicker. GAH

[Ligyron]

11. huh, good to know.

[TheFrenchRazor]

15. thank you. some people here are blissfully ignorant about severe/chronic pain. nt

[CountAllVotes]

24. I was RX'd fentanyl patch

It did nothing for my neuropathic pain/nerve damage due to a disease that I have. I took it back to the pharmacy that RX'd it being it did nothing for me at all.

Today, I am happy to report that YES my pain IS being properly managed (for now ...).

Thanks for bringing some facts to this "discussion" or whatever it is.

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. I learned from DU that drugs should be legalized

so I don't see why this is a crime in the least.

Someone help me out.

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. Bribing doctors to prescribe addictive opiates inappropriately

is most certainly illegal.

[TheFrenchRazor]

17. many here can't resist the temptation to tell other people how to live their lives. unfortunately,

that is not limited to the republican party.

[LanternWaste]

29. There's a specific irony in you alleging as much...

"can't resist the temptation to tell other people how to live their lives..."

There's a specific irony in you alleging as much...

That said, I too pretend the opinions of other people are equivalent to them telling me how to live my life. Unfortunately.

[JI7]

19. Legalization doesn't mean no regulation

[dawn frenzy adams]

13. Did you see this segment of Democracy Now?

Who Profits from the Opioid Crisis? Meet the Secretive Sackler Family Making Billions from OxyContin

[karynnj]

28. Wow, that is an excellent piece of journalism

Like they said, I knew the name from the Sacker wing of the MET with the Temple of Dendur. I would guess like many, I just thought they were wealthy people, if I thought anything at all.

The last question is fascinating. With donations to politicians, there is almost a kneejerk reaction to donate money equivalent to donations from people who are later shown to be despicable. Many Weinstein donations were renounced recently. However, I have never heard of museums or universities doing so. I wonder if they can at least remove the names from buildings, wings etc. I assume that there were contracts, when the money was donated. I have heard of buildings named decades or centuries ago being renamed and we all have read of the removal of funded statues that (fortunately) no longer reflect our values.

[yuiyoshida]

14. good!

良かった!

[nitpicker]

23. From the DoJ PR

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/founder-and-owner-pharmaceutical-company-insys-arrested-and-charged-racketeering

(snip)
The superseding indictment charges that Kapoor; Michael L. Babich, 40, of Scottsdale, Ariz., former CEO and President of the company; Alec Burlakoff, 42, of Charlotte, N.C., former Vice President of Sales; Richard M. Simon, 46, of Seal Beach, Calif., former National Director of Sales; former Regional Sales Directors Sunrise Lee, 36, of Bryant City, Mich., and Joseph A. Rowan, 43, of Panama City, Fla.; and former Vice President of Managed Markets, Michael J. Gurry, 53, of Scottsdale, Ariz., conspired to bribe practitioners in various states, many of whom operated pain clinics, in order to get them to prescribe a fentanyl-based pain medication. The medication, called “Subsys,” is a powerful narcotic intended to treat cancer patients suffering intense breakthrough pain. In exchange for bribes and kickbacks, the practitioners wrote large numbers of prescriptions for the patients, most of whom were not diagnosed with cancer.

The indictment also alleges that Kapoor and the six former executives 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. They achieved this goal by setting up the “reimbursement unit,” which was dedicated to obtaining prior authorization directly from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers.
(snip)

[lagomorph777]

32. That's amazing.

I hope he's the first of many.