Insys Therapeutics former executives found guilty in criminal opioid case

A Boston jury convicted Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor and several other executives of racketeering and other crimes in a fentanyl bribery case that federal prosecutors say helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Prosecutors accused Kapoor and four former executives of bribing doctors to unnecessarily prescribe their painkiller, Subsys.

Kapoor and his colleagues were found guilty Thursday after 15 days of deliberations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts announced on Twitter. Kapoor, the former chairman of Insys, is the highest ranking pharmaceutical executive to be tried in a case related to the opioid epidemic.

The other executives found guilty were: Michael L. Babich, former CEO and president of Insys; Alec Burlakoff, former vice president of sales; Richard Simon, former national director of sales; and Joseph Rowan, former vice president of managed markets.

The opioid epidemic has been a major issue that lawmakers have sought to tackle. More than 130 people in the country die every day after overdosing on opioids. According to the CDC, about 218,000 people have died from overdoses related to prescription opioids from 1999 to 2017.

Federal prosecutors have recently started cracking down on drugmakers accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic.

In April, Rochester Drug Cooperative agreed to pay a $20 million settlement after it was charged with unlawfully distributing oxycodone and fentanyl and conspiring to defraud the Drug Enforcement Administration. Prosecutors also charged 60 doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals in April for illegally prescribing more than 32 million pain pills.

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