Posted on 01/31/2018 11:40:50 AM PST by GoldenState_Rose
"In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, Mr. Kapoor and his company stand accused of bribing doctors to overprescribe a potent opioid and committing fraud on insurance companies solely for profit," said Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb of Massachusetts.
Prosecutors allege the company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to doctors in exchange for prescribing a spray called Subsys that contained the powerful and addictive synthetic opioid fentanyl. Three top prescribers have already been convicted of taking bribes from Insys.
NBC News reported extensively on the company this summer. In her first network interview, Patty Nixon, a company employee turned whistleblower, explained how the company lured doctors into prescribing the drug for patients who didn't need it.
"It was absolutely genius," Patty Nixon said of the alleged scheme. "It was wrong, but it was genius."
Subsys is 100 times stronger than morphine. It was approved by the FDA to treat patients with cancer who had "breakthrough" pain, that is, pain which other narcotics are not addressing.
Sarah Fuller was one of the patients who was prescribed Subsys even though she didn't have cancer.
In her case, it was chronic neck and back pain from two car accidents. And when her doctor prescribed Subsys, an Insys sales rep was sitting in the room with them, her father Dave Fuller told NBC News.
Within a month, Fuller's prescription was tripled. And 14 months after she started using the drug, she was found dead on a bedroom floor.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
How doctors can stop the opioid crisis at its source: Quit overprescribing - by Dr. Marty Makary
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/04/doctors-stop-opioid-crisis-quit-overprescribing-marty-makary-column/504860001/
Wouldn’t mind one bit if those over-prescribing these poisons and those drug reps pushing them to do so were charged with murder.
Well, a lawsuit for damages for a conspiracy to hook people on a deadly drugs that they didn’t need will create a nuclear crater in the financial accounts of anyone who came close to this issue, as it should.
Also need to find out which doctors took the bribe money.
Billionaire, eh?
“Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied”—Proverbs 27:20
They won’t quit overprescribing; they will stop prescribing at all, and people who have a legitimate need will be left to suffer.
I supervised part of this investigation on behalf of a major insurance carrier, during which I linked up again with an old college/ROTC friend I hadn’t seen in 25 years, who was the lead FBI agent on the case :)
That’s how he got to be a billionaire. Lots of money in drugs.
Wow! What a way to reconnect! God bless you guys for taking this on and bringing justice!
Wouldn’t he get the death penalty for this in Singapore? We should try that here and see the result.
Bump for later.
Wasn’t the Billionare in Canada who was murdered also in the drug trade?
Yep, small world.
Some of the docs in this scheme were prescribing this stuff for (relatively minor) worker’s comp claims and getting people hooked.
Story is from October, 2017.
The story is in the “General Chat” not “News” section, but of course the issue is very current.
Doesn’t look like there’s been a trial yet...can’t find anything about it but there are two very different pictures of the culprit when googling...young and old! Wonder when he’ll be prosecuted!
Trial is set for January 2019. It’s under the case name Babich et al.
Part of the issue too is the complete lack of personal responsibility in the majority of the populace. I avoid doctors like the plague (ironic since my better half is a nurse), and try to avoid pills period. Had all four wisdom teeth removed a couple years ago. I managed to use maybe half the bottle of their antibiotic mouthwash, and still haven’t used any of the hydrocodone I was given
I think the field of American medicine/American medical culture in general is in need of major overhaul. There needs to be less idolatry of doctors (many are of course incredible people, but not gods) - reforms in nursing practice and bedside manner are needed, and of course personal responsibility/common sense is vital among the public. (Like not buying into media hysteria over every latest public health scare.)
I thankfully haven’t had any major illnesses or operations, but even with minor issues - I’ve had better experiences/trust in medical professionals abroad (parts of Europe and Asia) and with their approaches to certain things.
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