Pharma CEO To Plead Guilty To Bribing Doctors To Prescribe Powerful Opioid

Photo by Insys Therapeutics

By Daniel Uria

Former Insys Therapeutics CEO Michael Babich agreed to plead guilty for his role in a conspiracy to bribe doctors to prescribe the powerful opioid Subsys to patients.

Dec. 26 (UPI) — The former CEO of a drug company that produced an opioid painkiller agreed to plead guilty to bribing doctors to prescribe the drug, court documents filed Wednesday stated.

Michael Babich, a former president and CEO of Insys Therapeutics Inc., will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of mail fraud for his role in organizing and issuing the bribes for doctors to prescribe patients with the company’s drug Subsys, according to the documents.

“It was part of the conspiracy that the defendant and his co-conspirators intentionally bribed and provided kickbacks to practitioners in order to increase Subsys sales,” the documents said.

Babich and other Insys executives were accused of defrauding insurance companies through the bribes, as insurance providers made payments to doctors without knowledge of the payments.

Prosecutors said the bribes and kickbacks “took multiple forms” including disguising them as payments for speaking events or hiring and paying salaries of office staff for “certain targeted practitioners.”

Subsys was a liquid formulation of fentanyl applied under the tongue to provide pain management for cancer patients already tolerant to opioid therapy.

The Justice Department is seeking a Jan. 9 plea hearing for the case.

Source: United Press International