The founder of Insys Therapeutics John Kapoor has become the first pharmaceutical boss to be convicted in a case linked to the US opioid crisis.<\/p>\n
A Boston jury found Kapoor and four colleagues conspired to bribe doctors to prescribe addictive painkillers, often to patients who didn’t need them.<\/p>\n
The former billionaire was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy for his role in a scheme which also misled insurers.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of deaths have been caused by opioid overdoses in the US.<\/p>\n
Indian-born Kapoor founded drugmaker Insys Therapeutics in 1990 and built it into a multi-billion dollar company.<\/p>\n
The jury found Kapoor had also misled medical insurance companies about patients’ need for the painkillers in order to boost sales of the firm’s fentanyl spray, Subsys.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Kapoor – who was arrested in 2017 on the same day President\u00a0Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a “national emergency”<\/a>\u00a0– ran a scheme that paid bribes to doctors to speak at fake marketing events to promote Subsys.<\/p>\n During the 10-week trial, jurors were also shown a rap video made by Insys for its employees on ways to boost sales of Subsys.<\/p>\n Kapoor and his co-defendants – Michael Gurry, Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee and Joseph Rowan – face up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n A statement from Kapoor’s lawyer said he was “disappointed” with the verdict. The men had denied the charges and have indicated that they plan to appeal.<\/p>\n Forbes listed Kapoor’s net worth as $1.8bn (\u00a31.4bn) in 2018, before dropping off the publication’s billionaire rankings this year.<\/p>\n His conviction marks a victory for US government efforts to target companies seen to have accelerated the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that opioids – a class of drug which includes everything from heroin to legal painkillers – were involved in almost 48,000 deaths in 2017.<\/p>\n The epidemic started with legally prescribed painkillers, including Percocet and OxyContin. It intensified as these were diverted to the black market.<\/p>\n There has also been a sharp rise in the use of illegal opioids including heroin, while many street drugs are laced with powerful opioids such as Fentanyl, increasing the risk of an overdose.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"