Ex-pharma CEO pleads guilty to kickbacks to doctors for opioid prescriptions

[Islander]

JONATHAN NG and SEAN PHILIP COTTER
January 9, 2019

A former pharmaceutical chief executive pleaded guilty to playing a part in a sophisticated scheme to give kickbacks to doctors who prescribed his company’s fentanyl-based opioid drugs — a move one top lawyer said is one step toward the goal of cutting down the corrupt greed that’s “alive and well in the pharma business.”
Michael Babich, the former CEO at Insys Therapeutics, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Wednesday for his role in a nationwide scheme to bribe physicians to prescribe the company’s oral-spray painkillers meant for cancer patients facing extreme pain.

Keep reading: https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/01...GJjPMfiaCsvJRw

[Pattypans]

This is good news. Now what about the doctors who took the thinly disguised bribes and prescribed the opiod in question to their patients, some of whom undoubtedly suffered greatly for having taken them, and some of whom probably died as a result of that first dishonest, unnecessary, off-label, un-Hippocratic prescription?

[Islander]

Good question. What was the outcome (if any) for the victims?

And I question whether prison time for one will act as a deterrent for all the others who willingly take the risk for easy money.

[Mr. Wizard]

The amount money involved in pharmaceuticals, especially opioids, breeds greed. As long as there's a buck to be made, these guys are not stopping. In fact, this CEO was fined a half million dollars 2 yrs. ago for a similar scheme. He was fined a half million dollars, but he estimates he made $3.5 million in profit. The math works in his favor. Greed, kickbacks, schemes,....the payoff is too huge, and the government can't catch them all.