The founder and four other executives at Insys Therapeutics, a drug company in Arizona were convicted of bribing doctors to boost the sales of Subsys, a highly addictive opioid spray.
74 year John Kapoor, the founder and former chairman of the drug company, was convicted of hatching conspiracies. These roles include presenting bribery schemes as educational opportunities and misleading health insurers about their client’s medical conditions.
Others convicted concerning the kickback scheme are the former national sales director, Richard Simon, former vice president of managed markets, Michael Gurry, and the former regional sales directors, Joseph Rowan and Sunrise Lee. The case was heard in Boston federal court where the jury deliberated for 15 days before passing their verdict.
Testimonies were taken from ex-vice president of sales, Alec Burlakoff and ex-CEO Michael Babich who had pleaded guilty in November and January respectively.
The convicts’ lawyers argued that the documents presented in court showed no evidence that they intended for doctors to prescribe the product for patients with no medical need for it.
Other evidence used in the trial, which began in January, is a hip-hop video created by sales representatives as a motivation for their colleagues to incite doctors to prescribe higher doses of the drug. A former sales representative also recounted how Lee gave a lap dance to a doctor whom the company was pushing to write more prescriptions.
Babich’s statement to jurors in February claimed the company recruited good looking representatives as a means to garner doctors’ attention.
