DoJ intervenes in whistle blower allegations of Insys paying kickbacks

On April 13, 2018, the United States intervened in five lawsuits accusing Insys Therapeutics (Nasdaq: INSY) of violating the False Claims Act in connection with the marketing of Subsys, an opioid painkiller manufactured and sold by Insys, the Department of Justice announced yesterday.

Subsys is a sublingual spray form of fentanyl, a powerful, but highly addictive, opioid painkiller used for cancer patients, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 for the treatment of persistent breakthrough pain in adult cancer patients who are already receiving, and tolerant to, around-the-clock opioid therapy.

As stated in the complaint, which was unsealed Tuesday, the government alleges that Insys, headquartered in Arizona, paid kickbacks to induce physicians and nurse practitioners to prescribe Subsys for their patients. Many of these kickbacks took the form of speaker program payments for speeches to physicians that were, in fact, shams; jobs for the prescribers’ relatives and friends; and lavish meals and entertainment.