Former Insys Employees Plead Not Guilty in Drug Kickback Scheme

Aug. 18, 2016

Two former Insys Therapeutics employees pleaded not guilty to charges that they were involved in a scheme to pay doctors kickbacks to prescribe Subsys, a pain medication containing the opioid fentanyl.

Jonathan Roper and Fernando Serrano were arrested in June for allegedly participating in a scheme to pay doctors thousands of dollars to participate in sham educational programs.

Subsys -- which contains fentanyl -- is about 100 times more powerful than morphine and is approved for use in late-stage cancer patients with breakthrough pain. Reports linking Prince's death to a fentanyl overdose have raised the profile of the opioid.

Roper, a former Insys district sales manager, and Serrano, a former sales representative, entered their pleas in Manhattan federal court to charges including that they violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

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