Posted on 10/26/2017 6:38:07 PM PDT by markomalley
Federal authorities arrested the billionaire founder and owner of Insys Therapeutics Thursday on charges of bribing doctors and pain clinics into prescribing the company’s fentanyl product to their patients.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged John Kapoor, 74, and seven other current and former executives at the pharmaceutical company with racketeering for a leading a national conspiracy through bribery and fraud to coerce the illegal distribution of the company’s fentanyl spray, which is intended for use as a pain killer by cancer patients. The company’s stock prices fell more than 20 percent following the arrests, according to the New York Post.
Kapoor stepped down as the company’s CEO in January amid ongoing federal probes into their Subsys product, a pain-relieving spray that contains fentanyl, a highly-addictive synthetic opioid. Fentanyl is more than 50 times stronger than morphine, and ingesting just two milligrams is enough to cause an adult to fatally overdose.
The series of arrests came just hours after President Donald Trump officially declared the country’s opioid epidemic a national emergency. Drug overdoses led to 64,070 deaths in 2016, which is more than the amount of American lives lost in the entire Vietnam War.
As the opioid crisis has developed, more and more states have begun holding doctors and opioid manufacturers accountable for over-prescribing and over-producing the highly-addictive painkillers.
“We will be bringing some major lawsuits against people and companies that are hurting our people,” Trump said Thursday. He also spoke about a program similar to Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” initiative.
“More than 20,000 Americans died of synthetic opioid overdoses last year, and millions are addicted to opioids. And yet some medical professionals would rather take advantage of the addicts than try to help them,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “This Justice Department will not tolerate this. We will hold accountable anyone – from street dealers to corporate executives — who illegally contributes to this nationwide epidemic. And under the leadership of President Trump, we are fully committed to defeating this threat to the American people.”
Good for them. There is really no use for a drug that strong to be prescribed as a medication in its current strength formula.
“Good for them. There is really no use for a drug that strong to be prescribed as a medication in its current strength formula.”
Thank you Mr Expert.
Wait just a minute, I want a big dose of fentanyl for my upcoming colonoscopy! I wish to feel no pain by the 24” instrument.
It doesn’t take an expert to realize the damage that drug doing to our society. But I guess it helps if you have the power of deduction to see the realities.
Go for it. It was nice knowing you.
I’m not hooked on drugs? Are you?
Fentanyl has been around a long long time.
Used right it can help a lot of people.
The issue here is bribery.
Don’t worry, I will report back here the day after.
Good luck!
Hope all will be well!
Why is the govt making out like it is some kind of Yuge mystery. The opium and fentanyl trees were all uprooted with the money trees.
EVERYONE who touches the stuff has a DEA #. The complete total inventory of all the medication can be directly accessed via computer database. The DEA knows how much opioid meds Pills, caps, patches, ALL OF IT has been dispensed and where it is and who is supposed to have it. Its not a giant mystery.
You might not be hooked on drugs but you appear to be hooked on defending drug hawkers a.k.a. Big Pharma.
A Valium or 2 would suffice for that procedure.
Versed is what’s normally administered. You will be fine and not remember anything.
By reputable companies. The really bad stuff comes from hack shops in the far east over our borders and through internet sales.
With Versed.....you will wake up every 20 minutes.....asking the same, damn question......and go back to sleep. It affects short-term memory. Go home (make sure you are safe in bed), and sleep it off. Also make sure whoever is driving you home......tell them to put you in the BACK SEAT of the car. My hisband tried to grab my steering wheel while I was driving him home after a procedure.
The doctors and clinics who took the bribes need to be taken down.
*husband*
The larger issue is the opioid epidemic.
Meaning opioids causing big problems like death.
That includes fentanyl.
Wish you well. Don’t worry!
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