Drug exec accused of bribing doctors to prescribe opioid drug

The billionaire founder and top executive of a drug company that manufactures a prescription opioid has been arrested and charged with bribing doctors to overprescribe the drug, CNN reports.

John Kapoor, 74, of Insys Therapeutics, was arrested Thursday in Arizona. Authorities say his company had been giving illegal kickbacks to doctors to encourage prescriptions of the powerful painkiller Subsys, which is typically only used for end-stage cancer patients. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office found that most of the patients prescribed the drug were not diagnosed with cancer. 

Six other former employees of the company have also been indicted, according to CNN.

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Subsys is a spray version of the drug fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid and tranquilizer that is thought to be behind many of the 60,000-plus lethal drug overdoses in the country last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb pointed to Kapoor’s actions being “solely for profit” amid the worsening opioid abuse epidemic, which he said has “reached crisis proportions.” 

“We must hold the industry and its leadership accountable — just as we would the cartels or a street-level drug dealer,” he added. 

Kapoor faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, and a number of other company executives and doctors involved in the scheme have been found guilty for taking and receiving payments in the scheme. 

The drug company founder’s arrest came on the same day President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health crisis.