July 14, 2017

Two former sales representatives for an Arizona-based drug company pled guilty this week to participating in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme designed to boost sales of a powerful prescription painkiller, federal officials announced.

The now-defunct program at Insys Therapeutics ostensibly involved paying doctors an “honorarium,” typically $1,000 to $3,000, in exchange for brief speeches at high-end restaurants to other health care professionals about the benefits of Subsys, a drug containing the opioid fentanyl.

“In truth, the events were usually just a gathering of friends and co-workers, most of whom did not have the ability to prescribe Subsys, and no educational component took place,” the U.S.