Drug company used rap video to push for higher doses, sales

The video, titled “Great by Choice,” was shown during a national sales meeting in 2015 to encourage employees to talk doctors into prescribing higher doses, prosecutors said.

In it, suit-clad sales reps rap to the tune of a song by the artist A$AP Rocky about titration, the process of increasing the strength of a patient’s prescription until it reaches the adequate level.

“I love titration, yeah, that’s not a problem. I got new patients and I got a lot of ’em,” they say. “Build relationships that are healthy. Got more docs than Janelle’s got selfies.”

At one point, the person dressed up as the bottle of fentanyl spray takes off his costume to reveal then-vice president of sales, Alec Burlakoff. Burlakoff pleaded guilty in November to racketeering conspiracy and is expected to testify against Kapoor.

“What we built here can’t be debated. Shout to Kapoor for what he created,” the sales reps rap. “The competition just making noise. We’re making history because we’re great by choice.”

The video is the latest eyebrow-raising piece of evidence in the trial, which has put a spotlight on the federal government’s efforts to go after those it says are responsible for fueling the deadly drug crisis. The trial, which began last month, is expected to last several more weeks.

Last month, a former employee told jurors that she watched her boss — regional sales manager Sunrise Lee — give a lap dance at a Chicago nightclub to a doctor Insys was pushing to write more prescriptions. Lee’s lawyer said the doctor was taking advantage of her.

Beth Wilkinson, an attorney for Kapoor, told jurors that any criminal activity by Insys was orchestrated by Burlakoff. She has sought to portray Burlakoff and the government’s other key witness, former CEO Michael Babich, as liars who are willing to say anything to take down Kapoor in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence.