https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/79897...ison-in-opioid

One of the Leaders of the Opioid Abuse scandal has been convicted for corruption

Former billionaire and pharmaceutical executive John Kapoor has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison. His sentencing is the culmination of a months-long criminal trial in Boston's Moakley U.S. Courthouse that resulted in the first successful prosecution of pharmaceutical executives tied to the opioid epidemic.

The 76-year-old is the founder of Insys Therapeutics, which made and aggressively marketed the potent opioid painkiller Subsys.

Kapoor's 66-month prison term is substantially less than the 15-year sentence recommended by federal prosecutors, but it is more than the one year requested by Kapoor's defense attorneys, who maintained the executive's innocence and stressed his old age as reason for a short prison sentence.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs explained that she reached the lesser sentence after considering Kapoor's advanced age and philanthropy, as well as "his central role in the crime," The Associated Press reported.

Kapoor and four other executives were found guilty last year of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to bribe doctors to prescribe the company's medication, including to patients who didn't need it. They then lied to insurance companies to make sure the costly oral fentanyl spray was covered.

The painkiller, which was intended for cancer patients, could cost as much as $19,000 a month.

Two other executives pleaded guilty and became cooperating witnesses.

The other executives received between one year and 33 months, significantly less than many of the prison terms recommended by the federal prosecutors.

Opioid Executive John Kapoor Found Guilty In Landmark Bribery Case
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Opioid Executive John Kapoor Found Guilty In Landmark Bribery Case
Earlier on Thursday, Insys sales chief Alec Burlakoff was sentenced to 26 months in prison for his role in the bribery and fraud scheme.

"This was an offense of greed," Burroughs said before sentencing Burlakoff.

The sales executive hired a stripper as a Subsys sales representative to help persuade doctors to boost prescriptions. The woman, named Sunrise Lee, eventually was promoted to oversee a third of the company's sales force.

"I didn't think of who we were at Insys and how unethical what we were doing was," he told the judge on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. "The only thing I could think was how could I keep up with the fast and furious pace necessary to get ahead."

Opioid-Maker Insys Admits To Bribing Doctors, Agrees To Pay $225 Million Settlement
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Opioid-Maker Insys Admits To Bribing Doctors, Agrees To Pay $225 Million Settlement
For the federal government, this was a landmark trial in which corporate executives were charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a charge often reserved for mob bosses and drug lords. Experts saw the trial as sending a message to drug companies that they will be held criminally accountable for their alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis.

"I think this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Brad Bailey, a former federal prosecutor and current defense attorney who has been following the Insys trial closely. "It's a template that prosecutors will continue to use."

While these seven Insys executives have been in court and awaiting sentencing, the company entered into an agreement with the government to settle criminal and civil investigations. Insys agreed to pay $225 million and admitted to the kickback scheme. Shortly after the agreement was announced, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Insys Files For Chapter 11, Days After Landmark Opioid Settlement Of $225 Million
LAW
Insys Files For Chapter 11, Days After Landmark Opioid Settlement Of $225 Million
Bailey said that between the prison sentences and the company's financial woes, "there's no question that this was a cautionary tale to all executives."

Ameet Sarpatwari, a physician and the assistant director of Harvard University's Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law, thinks this trial will have a chilling effect on the pharmaceutical industry.

"It's an important warning to other pharmaceutical manufacturers and executives who may be considering pushing their products through aggressive, and possibly legally dubious, marketing schemes," said Sarpatwari. "The consequences for such actions may not simply be fines — which has historically simply been the cost of doing business — but possibly jail time."

However, he said, this successful prosecution does not mean the practices that contributed to overprescribing and addiction to opioids will go away.

"A lot of the activities that you see within the industry that are effective are technically legal. And so, if that's the case, is this going to curb those aggressive tactics? No, but it will give second thought to pushing the boundaries," said Sarpatwari. "I think that is going to be the hopefully helpful fallout of the case."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alec-bu...es-2020-06-21/


This Sunday, 60 Minutes continues its groundbreaking investigative series on the American opioid epidemic and interviews Alec Burlakoff, a former top executive at Insys Therapeutics.

Pharma execs used strip clubs, broke FDA laws to boost opioid sales
The opioid epidemic: Who is to blame?
Insys, the Arizona-based maker of opioid painkiller Subsys, filed for bankruptcy in January 2020. After a 10-week trial in a Boston federal court, Burlakoff, CEO John Kapoor and six other executives were sentenced to prison for their part in a racketeering scheme based on a conspiracy to recklessly and illegally boost profits from Subsys, a potent, fast-acting fentanyl intended for cancer pain patients. This landmark criminal case was the first to bring pharmaceutical executives to trial for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic, potentially indicating a shift in how the government approaches white collar crime.

60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker sat down with Burlakoff before his sentencing in January, after he had testified about the illegal sales tactics he employed at Insys.

Burlakoff explained the inner workings of the company, and what it took to be a top sales executive at what prosecutors would come to call an organized criminal enterprise.

"There's a story behind each story, but I got real sick in high school," Burlakoff said.

He was diagnosed with a bacterial infection, was treated for three years and then began to see a therapist, getting "a taste of what therapy can do for you."

"I knew what it was like to be sick every day, and wake up feeling ill every day, and go to bed ill every day," Burlakoff said. "I made a decision that if this is how I have to live the rest of my life, quite frankly, I don't want to live."

Burlakoff, whose father and brother were successful car salesmen, chose to major in child psychology, get a master's degree in social work and begin what he found to be a rewarding career as a school guidance counselor. How did he make the leap to pharmaceutical sales? One incident stands out in his mind:

From that moment, Alec Burlakoff's life took a sharp turn. His first sales job was at Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical giant. Burlakoff began selling Prozac and "central nervous system products, psychology products," something he knew about from personal experience.

"I studied depression. I've lived with depression. I've been treated for depression. And I know what medication can do," Burlakoff said. "So I went in there starry-eyed and explaining to my father, 'Hey Dad, I'm not just going into sales. I'm parlaying the education that you helped me with, you know, through college and my masters."

Burlakoff said his father never wanted his son to pursue sales, even offering to supplement his income as a guidance counselor to keep him on that career track.

"When I was young, he didn't have any strong opinions one way or the other, but when push came to shove and I was getting ready to leave my work as a guidance counselor at a school, he actually forbade me to go into sales," Burlakoff recalled.

Despite his family's disapproval, Burlakoff entered the field. He says he was determined to get his family's support by earning "the type of dollars that my father and brother were earning." Burlakoff said he initially set out to help people, but within hours of being shown the ropes by fellow sales reps and managers, that notion was quickly dispelled. Salesmen, he learned, needed to hammer in rationalizations to justify their behaviors and be successful in the field.

Burlakoff would be named Eli Lilly's "Rookie of the Year'' for the southeast region. In his retelling, the job came down to this: "How do you find a way to get into the customer's [doctors'] mind, manipulate them, overcome their objections, incentivize them, get them excited, and move product?"

Aggressive sales tactics ultimately led to Eli Lilly becoming targeted in a lawsuit. And though the scheme was, at the end of the day, ruled legal by the judge, Burlakoff was fired. But the incident only enhanced his reputation, he said, and within three .