When Greed Burns: Big Pharma Boss Convicted In US Opioid Case (Video)
by N.Morgan
The overdoses from the Opioid crisis are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only in 2017, opioids, which involve everything from heroin to legal painkillers, led to almost 48,000 deaths.
The epidemic started with legally prescribed painkillers, such as Percocet and OxyContin, and escalated as they were diverted to the black market.
Moreover, the use of illegal opioids like heroin is also on the rise, and numerous street drugs are laced with powerful opioids like Fentanyl, raising the risk of an overdose.
The Indian-born former billionaire John Kapoor founded drugmaker Insys Therapeutics in 1990 and built it into a multi-billion dollar company. In 2018, Forbes listed Kapoor’s net worth at $1.8bn (£1.4bn).
Yet, he has become the first pharmaceutical boss to be convicted in a case linked to the US opioid crisis.
A Boston jury found him and four of his colleagues conspired to bribe doctors to prescribe addictive painkillers to patients who, in many cases, did not need them.
He was also found guilty of racketeering conspiracy for his role in a scheme which also misled insurers about patients’ need for the painkillers in order to boost sales of the firm’s fentanyl spray, Subsys.
Kapoor, who was arrested in 2017, ran a scheme that paid bribes to doctors to speak at fake marketing events to promote Subsys.
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Calling 39 witnesses, federal prosecutors argued that Kapoor was motivated by money and with the aim to improve his bottom line, he willingly put his patients’ lives at stake. They even described Insys Therapeutics as a struggling company under intense pressure from Kapoor to succeed.
Kapoor and his co-defendants — Michael Gurry, Sunrise Lee, Richard Simon, and Joseph Rowan, face up to 20 years in prison.
According to his lawyer, he was “disappointed” with the verdict, and the five men had denied the charges and revealed that they intend to appeal.
Kapoor’s conviction marks a victory for US government efforts to target companies and individuals who have contributed and accelerated the opioid crisis.
According to U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling, these convictions mark the first successful prosecution of top pharmaceutical executives for crimes related to the illicit marketing and prescribing of opioids.
He added that due to their reckless and illegal distribution of these drugs, especially while conspiring to commit racketeering along the way, pharmaceutical executives will be held responsible for fueling this opioids epidemic just like street-level drug dealers.
He continued by saying that this landmark prosecution vindicated the public’s interest in staunching the flow of opioids into our homes and streets.
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