North Carolina Sues John Kapoor’s Insys Over Opioid Prescriptions

North Carolina sued Insys Therapeutics Inc, which was earlier led by its embattled founder John Kapoor, last week for illegally pushing an opioid medication. The company already faces lawsuits over the issue.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced an unfair trade lawsuit against Insys on Dec. 21, which he filed in Wake County Superior Court, for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe Subsys, an oral spray meant for cancer patients.

“As we allege in our complaint, Insys carried out an extensive, coordinated scheme of kickbacks, deception and fraud in the marketing of its drug, Subsys,” Stein was quoted as saying by Reuters. It’s 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also demands that the company surrender the money earned through its various promotional schemes.

Indian American billionaire Kapoor was arrested in October for allegedly leading a nationwide bribery and fraud scheme to promote the use of Subsys in non-cancer patients to boost profits.

The medicine was launched in 2012 and was going to cost a cancer patient thousands of dollars per month to control pain. It was meant for end-stage cancer patients.

Prosecutors said that American pharmaceutical companies prioritize profits over public health and Insys is an example of it. Authorities in the country are scrutinizing the prescription of opioids, which President Donald Trump has said is a nationwide public health emergency.

Insys has said it is in talks with the U.S. Justice Department and might have to pay a minimum of $150 million, according to Reuters.

Insys has also said that it has taken measures to prevent past mistakes and emphasized that Subsys made up 0.02 per cent of opioid prescriptions in 2016 in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2017 that at least 42,249 opioid overdose deaths were reported in 2016, which is a 28 per cent increase from 2015.

Kapoor, former Insys CEO Micahel Babich and others have pleaded not guilty. In the same case, medical practitioners and other ex-Insys employees have also faced charges.

In November 2017, the court ruled in favor of Kapoor removing his GPS-enabled ankle monitor, which he said interfered with jogging. Federal prosecutors had said that his wealth put him at flight risk, but U.S. Magistrate Jennifer Boal in Boston expressed her disagreement, saying he was not at flight risk.