Billionaire founder of INSYS Therapeutics, John N. Kapoor.

The state of North Carolina announced that it’s suing pharmaceutical manufacturer INSYS Therapeutics for using fraudulent means to push one of its very strong opioid drugs to pad on profits—opioid crisis be damned. Reuters reports:

The lawsuit announced by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein comes amid a federal investigation that has led to charges against several former executives accused of engaging in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe Subsys. Stein accused Insys of paying kickbacks to doctors to promote and prescribe Subsys for uses other than treating cancer pain and of deceiving insurers into covering prescriptions for the company’s product. “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 said at a press conference in Raleigh, North Carolina that was streamed online.

The drug they’re talking about, Subsys, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012, but only in extremely rare cases. The drug is powerful; it’s about 50 times stronger than heroin—and 100 times more power potent than morphine. Understandably, the approved use of the drug is very limited.

But the lawsuit says INSYS did its best to circumvent the restrictions to drive up use and, thus, drive up profits. The North Carolina attorney general’s lawsuit says they pushed salespeople to bribe doctors and provide kickbacks to those willing to advocate for its use outside of the small group approved by the FDA. They also created a program to circumvent healthcare insurers’ requiring a prior authorization for the drug to help get the prescription approved—even if it meant lying about its intended use.

Pharmaceutical companies putting profits over people isn’t new. And they are no stranger to gaming the system. However, there’s something particularly sickening about the lengths they went through to push an opioid drug when there’s a well-known epidemic happening in this country. As Attorney General Stein said in a statement:

“As millions of Americans were becoming addicted to and dying from prescription painkillers, it appears Insys and its sales representatives pushing its incredibly potent opioid on North Carolina patients just to make more money.” said Attorney General Stein. “This is unconscionable, it’s unacceptable and it’s illegal. Today, I am acting to hold them accountable.”



This is far from the only legal troubles that INSYS and its billionaire founder and CEO John Kapoor are facing. INSYS has already agreed to pay settlements with some states while others are preparing their own lawsuits. Also, Kapoor and several former executives have been personally hit with federal charges.