Insys agrees to $225M opioid settlement

June 6, 2019

Insys Therapeutics has agreed to pay $225 million to settle the federal government's criminal and civil investigations into the company's marketing practices for its fentanyl-based medication, Subsys.

Insys and its operating subsidiary will plead guilty to five counts of mail fraud. In the settlement, the drugmaker admitted to setting up sham speaker programs that instead bribed doctors to write prescriptions for Subsys.

Last month, a federal jury found the company’s former CEO and other top executives guilty of racketeering charges related to how it sold Subsys. The verdict marked the first-ever conviction of a drug company CEO in the government’s ongoing mission to prosecute pharma executives who were instrumental in over-selling prescription painkillers. Following that, Insys revealed that it will likely have to file for bankruptcy due to the cost of settling a Department of Justice investigation into its selling practices.

"Today’s settlement sends a strong message to pharmaceutical manufacturers that the kinds of illegal conduct that we have alleged in this case will not be tolerated. I want to assure the families and communities ravaged by this epidemic that the Department of Justice will continue to act forcefully to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for their actions," said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

Read the DOJ press release.