A federal jury on Thursday found the top executives of Insys Therapeutics, a company that sold a fentanyl-based painkiller, Subsys, guilty of racketeering charges in a rare criminal prosecution that blamed corporate officials for contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic.
“Just as we would street-level drug dealers, we will hold pharmaceutical executives responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic by recklessly and illegally distributing these drugs, especially while conspiring to commit racketeering along the way,” said Andrew E. Lelling, the United States attorney in Massachusetts who pursued the case.
“the case paints a picture of the kind of troubling industry practices that helped fuel the opioid epidemic. and the verdict shows that a jury is willing to punish for them.” said
Abbe Gluck, a Yale law professor.
“the case paints a picture of the kind of troubling industry practices that helped fuel the opioid epidemic. and the verdict shows that a jury is willing to punish for them.” said
Abbe Gluck, a Yale law professor.
The jury, after deliberating for 15 days, issued guilty verdicts against the company’s founder, the onetime billionaire John Kapoor, and four former executives, finding they had conspired to fuel sales of its highly potent drug, Subsys, by not only bribing doctors to prescribe their product but also by misleading insurers about patients’ need for the drug.
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