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 The lawsuit announced by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein
comes amid a federal investigation that has led to charges against
several former executives accused of engaging in a scheme to bribe
doctors to prescribe Subsys.
Stein accused Insys of paying kickbacks to doctors to promote and
prescribe Subsys for uses other than treating cancer pain and of
deceiving insurers into covering prescriptions for the company's
product.
"As we allege in our complaint, Insys carried out an extensive,
coordinated scheme of kickbacks, deception and fraud in the
marketing of its drug, Subsys," Stein said at a press conference in
Raleigh, North Carolina that was streamed online.
Chandler, Arizona-based Insys did not respond to requests for
comment. It has said that it has taken steps to prevent past
mistakes from happening again and has stressed that Subsys made up
0.02 percent of opioid prescriptions in 2016.
Thursday's lawsuit, filed in a North Carolina state court, came as
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that
opioids were involved in 42,249 overdose deaths in 2016, up 28
percent from a year earlier.
Insys has found itself at the center of investigations focused on
Subsys, an under-the-tongue spray intended for cancer patients that
contains fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.
In October, federal prosecutors in Boston brought charges against
billionaire Insys founder John Kapoor, adding him to a case filed
last year against six former Insys executives and managers initially
charged, including former Chief Executive Michael Babich.
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Prosecutors said that beginning in 2012, Kapoor, Babich and others
schemed to pay speaker fees and other bribes to medical
practitioners to prescribe Subsys and to fraudulently induce
insurers into approving payment for it.
Kapoor, Babich and the others have pleaded not guilty. Several other
ex-Insys employees and medical practitioners have also faced charges
related to Subsys.
Insys has said it is in settlement talks with the U.S. Justice
Department and has estimated the minimum amount it may have to pay
is $150 million.
It previously agreed to pay $9.45 million to resolve investigations
by attorneys general in Oregon, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and
Illinois. It also faces lawsuits by attorneys general in Arizona,
New Jersey and New Mexico.
(The story was refiled to correct the headline to say "drugmaker"
instead of "drugmakers")
(Reporting By Tom Brown)
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