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Billionaire pharma founder busted in opioid scheme

October 26, 2017

The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics was arrested on Thursday on US charges that he participated in a scheme with other executives to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug and to defraud insurers. 

John Kapoor, 74, who stepped down as chief executive of Insys in January, was charged with having engaged in conspiracies to commit racketeering, mail fraud and wire fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in Boston. 

It says they, with others, devised a scheme to pay bribes in the form of speaker fees and food and entertainment to medical practitioners to prescribe Subsys and to increase the dosage and volume of existing prescriptions. 

They also sought to mislead and defraud insurers who were reluctant to approve payment for Subsys when it was prescribed to patients who did not have cancer, the indictment said.

DYI