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Charges of kickbacks at drugmaker that sold painkiller

 
Published June 11, 2016

Jonathan Roper, once a sales manager at Insys Therapeutics, a small pharmaceutical company, had a problem. The end of the quarter was near and, for the first time, Insys was in danger of missing sales goals for its only product, a spray called Subsys that contains the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

So Roper sent out a blistering email to his staff members at the time, in March 2014, urging them to make a final push.

"There is no excuse for any of your docs to not take care of you at this crucial time of the quarter," he wrote. It's time, he said, for the top-prescribing doctors "to give back for all of the hard work, long days and late nights you have spoiled them with."

Roper and a former sales representative, Fernando Serrano, were arrested Thursday on federal anti-kickback charges, accused of paying thousands of dollars to doctors to participate in what federal prosecutors described as "sham" educational programs in exchange for prescribing millions of dollars worth of fentanyl. Criminal charges against drug company employees are unusual, legal experts said, underscoring the sordid nature of the case and its connection with fentanyl, which is frequently abused and can lead to deadly overdoses if inappropriately prescribed.

The federal indictment, which quotes Roper's emails, does not mention Insys by name. But other details in the document — including when the drug was approved and its annual sales in 2015 — make it clear that Insys, based in Arizona, is the company in question. Insys has previously disclosed that it is under federal investigation for its sales and marketing practices. Last year, a nurse pleaded guilty to federal charges of accepting kickbacks from the company.

Federal prosecutors say that the case is particularly egregious because it involves inappropriate marketing of fentanyl, a drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine and abuse of which has been skyrocketing in the United States. Fentanyl is the drug that musician Prince accidentally overdosed on, killing him, although it is not clear what form he took. Fentanyl is a generic drug and is sold in many forms. The version sold by Insys is for cancer patients.

"Fentanyl is an incredibly dangerous and highly addictive drug that is finding its way into, and destroying, too many lives in our communities," Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. "As alleged, Roper and Serrano helped feed this devastating surge of opioid addictions by tapping into another age-old addiction, greed."

Representatives for Insys did not return calls or an email seeking comment.