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High-Ranking Pharma Exec Sentenced to 5.5 Years for Role in Opioid Crisis

HeadlineJan 27, 2020

In Boston, the founder of Insys Therapeutics has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in a landmark case for the opioid crisis. John Kapoor and four other executives were convicted last May of a criminal conspiracy to bribe doctors to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray to patients who didn’t need it. One of the defendants allegedly gave a lap dance to a doctor at a company event in order to persuade him to prescribe the drug. Legal experts say the sentencing should be a warning to other drug company executives who have engaged in deceptive marketing practices and other schemes to push opioids.

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