(CHICAGO) At first, the Chicago pharmacy sales rep had serious doubts about her ability to persuade a particular doctor in her region to start prescribing her company’s powerful painkiller.
“He is extremely moody, lazy and inattentive,” she wrote to her boss in a September 2012 email.
But then the rep and her supervisor took the doctor out for lunch, followed by drinks at a popular rooftop bar downtown.
Before long, the physician was eagerly prescribing the fentanyl spray Subsys, according to a federal indictment handed down this month, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. In exchange, the doctor allegedly received $70,800 in bribes and kickbacks from now-former executives and managers with the drug’s maker, Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
The Illinois doctor is not named in the indictment, referred to only as “practitioner #6.”
The doctor is one of 10 medical professionals nationwide who allegedly were given bribes and kickbacks as part of a racketeering scheme that led to charges in December against six former Insys executives and managers. Neither the Illinois doctor nor any of the other practitioners is charged in the indictment.
“Patient safety is paramount and prescriptions for these highly addictive drugs, especially fentanyl, which is among the most potent and addictive opioids, should be prescribed without the influence of corporate money,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a written statement. “I hope that today’s charges send a clear message that we will continue to attack the opioid epidemic from all angles, whether its corporate greed or street level dealing.”
The indictment alleges that Michael L. Babich, 40, the former CEO and president of the company, along with five others, conspired to bribe practitioners in various states to prescribe Subsys, a powerful narcotic intended to treat cancer paints dealing with intense pain. In exchange for the bribes and kickbacks, the doctors allegedly wrote large numbers of prescriptions for the patients — most not even cancer patients.
“The charges against individuals discussed in the DOJ press release relate to previously disclosed investigations,” according to an Insys statement posted on the company website. “Insys continues to cooperate with all relevant authorities in its ongoing investigations and is committed to complying with laws and regulations that govern our products and business practices.”
According to the indictment, in 2012, there were as many as 2 million patients nationwide suffering from the cancer pain Subsys sought to treat. But the market was crowded with similar drugs. To gain an edge, the drug company began aggressively targeting pain clinics.
Sales reps arranged for doctors to speak at special events — often high-priced restaurants — to tout the benefits of Subsys to other doctors. But often the events were simply an opportunity for the speaker to enjoy a night out with office staff and friends, the indictments states. The doctor was then paid a “fee” for speaking, the indictment states.
“They do not need to be good speakers, they need to write lots of [Subsys prescriptions],” one of the charged executives is quoted as saying in a text to one of his sales reps.
The plan involved recruiting “practitioners known to have questionable prescribing habits,” the indictment states.
But the Chicago-area sales rep assigned to the Illinois doctor initially had some reservations.
He “runs a very shady pill mill and only accepts cash,” she wrote on Sept. 17, 2012 in an email to her boss. “He basically just shows up to sign his name on the prescription pad, if he shows up at all.”
But less than a month later, after the sales rep and her supervisor met over lunch and then drinks, the doctor was soon on board. Between February 2013 and July 2015, “insurers and pharmacy benefit managers authorized payment for approximately 1,601 Fentanyl Spray prescriptions written by Practitioner #6,” according to the indictment.
– Chicago Sun-Times
