The story of Insys Therapeutics continues to get more interesting. In the first criminal trial of pharmaceutical executives related to the opioid epidemic, a federal judge in Boston recently threw out some of the convictions of four former Insys Therapeutics executives. The reversed convictions involved convictions of conspiring to get physicians to prescribe Subsys. The individuals, including Insys founder John Kapoor, were previously convicted of violating the federal Controlled Substances Act and for offering bribes and kickbacks that deprived patients of “honest services.”
United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs overturned those convictions for Kapoor, as well for three former Insys executives: Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee, and Joseph Rowan. Judge Burroughs concluded that prosecutors had failed to prove that the four executives persuaded doctors and healthcare providers to prescribe Subsys to patients who did not actually need it.
Judge Burroughs noted that convicting someone of conspiring to illegally distribute a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act “requires more than an ‘intentional failure to adhere to the standard of care,” and that the “threshold for criminal liability is when a physician ‘ceases to be a physician at all’” and more like a “’drug pusher’.”
During the trial that took place earlier this year, testimony had indicated that some patients did have a legitimate need for the prescription drug.
In her Order, Judge Burroughs did not dispute the fact that prescribers received fees through a speakers program if they prescribed the drug and received higher fees for higher prescribed dosages. She referred to the executives’ behavior as “reprehensible and designed to financially incentivize health care practitioners to prescribe Subsys without regard for the best interests of their patients.”
Burroughs also noted that prosecutors may have overshot with these charges, and that they “could have easily proved bribery, but it elected not to charge bribes or kickbacks and now must live with that decision.”
This development does not mean the executives are exonerated on all charges, and Judge Burroughs made sure to mention in her ruling that it does not “condone or minimize” the actions of the executives, but that the reversal of this jury verdict is “necessary.”
Convictions on other criminal charges remain (mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering) and the executives are still facing a maximum prison sentence of twenty years per conviction. The four executives mentioned in this article, plus a fifth who was only convicted of racketeering, Michael J. Gurry, are scheduled to be sentenced in January 2020.
Of note, in November 2019, Kapoor’s attorneys requested a new trial. In the same ruling that partially overturned the convictions, Judge Burroughs denied that request.