{"id":6514,"date":"2017-10-17T16:05:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T20:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6514"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:57:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:57:44","slug":"pharma-billionaire-arrested-on-charges-of-bribing-doctors-to-prescribe-opioid-painkillers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6514","title":{"rendered":"Pharma Billionaire Arrested On Charges of Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Opioid Painkillers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pharma Billionaire Arrested On Charges of Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Opioid Painkillers<\/h3>\n
\n
\n

By\u00a0LUCINDA SHEN<\/a><\/p>\n

October 26, 2017<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The same day President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a\u00a0nationwide public health emergency<\/a>, the federal government said it arrested a wealthy pharmaceutical company executive on charges of bribing doctors to needlessly prescribe his firm\u2019s opioid painkiller.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice arrested\u00a0Insys Therapeutics<\/a>\u00a0founder John Kapoor, 74, in Phoenix, it said Thursday. Kapoor was charged with using bribes and fraud to prop up sales of a pain medication called Subsys, a fentanyl spray typically used to treat cancer patients suffering excruciating pain.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"University<\/div>\n
\n
University at Buffalo\/Reuters<\/div>\n
University at Buffalo\/Reuters<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kapoor\u2019s arrest comes nearly a year after former Insys CEO Michael Babich and five other onetime executives\u00a0were arrested<\/a>\u00a0as part of an alleged \u201cnationwide conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department claims that Kapoor and other Insys executives offered bribes in the form of kickbacks to doctors who wrote \u201clarge numbers of prescriptions\u201d for patients, many of whom did not have cancer. The Department also alleged that the executives defrauded insurers by forming a \u201creimbursement unit\u201d dedicated to obtaining prior authorization from insurers who were reluctant to pay for the drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Insys executives allegedly fueled the opioid epidemic by paying doctors to needlessly prescribe an extremely dangerous and addictive form of fentanyl,\u201d Phillip Coyne, special agent in charge for the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations of selling a highly addictive opioid cancer pain drug to patients who did not have cancer, make them no better than street-level drug dealer,\u201d added Harold Shaw, a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent.<\/p>\n

Insys did not immediately return\u00a0Fortune\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>request for comment.<\/p>\n

Insys\u2019 stock closed down nearly 23% following the news of Kapoor\u2019s arrest, pushing the company\u2019s valuation down to $417 million. It was a stunning retreat, considering the company was valued at over $19 billion as recently as 2015, when\u00a0concerns about the company\u2019s practices were first raised<\/a>. (Insys is now also developing its\u00a0own drug to reverse opioid overdoses.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Insys\u2019 falloff has cost Kapoor a hefty portion of his own net worth, which is made up in part of company stock. At Insys\u2019 peak, Kapoor\u2019s current stake in the company was worth over $1.9 billion. By Thursday\u2019s close, it was down to $246.7 million. (Kapoor still holds a $1 billion stake in Akorn Pharmaceuticals, a generic drug maker where he also serves as board chairman. Akorn\u2019s stock was down about 1% at Thursday\u2019s close.)<\/p>\n

Kapoor is set to make a court appearance in Phoenix at a later date.<\/p>\n

\n

Retrieved from: http:\/\/fortune.com\/2017\/10\/26\/john-kapoor-insys-therapeutics-arrested-net-worth\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pharma Billionaire Arrested On Charges of Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Opioid Painkillers By\u00a0LUCINDA SHEN October 26, 2017 The same day President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a\u00a0nationwide public health emergency, the federal government said it arrested a wealthy pharmaceutical company executive on charges of bribing doctors to needlessly prescribe …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}