[ad_1]
The Maryland authorities on Thursday announced charges against an Arizona-based drug maker who they say has embarked on a national project "characterized by extraordinary mistakes" to increase profits in the opioid epidemic.
Attorney General Brian Frosh has filed a complaint against Insys Therapeutics, alleging multiple violations of the consumer protection law. The pharmaceutical company manufactures a highly addictive opioid spray used to manage uncontrollable pain in adult patients with cancer, but Frosh says Insys has joined local healthcare providers in a "calculated scheme" to target non-cancer patients , including those pain.
According to the state Attorney General, more than 90% of Subsys's spray-based prescriptions written or filed in Maryland were actually intended for people who should never have taken the potent drug manufactured with the drug. fentanyl of synthetic opioid.
"The allegations against Insys describe a calculated scheme employing doctors, pharmacists and sales representatives to increase profits and market share at the expense of the health and well-being of vulnerable patients," Frosh said in a statement. .
Other US states have filed lawsuits against Insys, some of whom have arrived in settlements. Asked about the latest accusations of deceptive practices, a spokesman for the pharmaceutical company said that the drug manufacturer "generally refrains from commenting on court proceedings".
In Maryland, a mid-Atlantic region where the opioid overdose mortality rate is the highest in the country, Frosh's consumer protection division says Insys has provided tens of thousands prescribers to prescribe them to their patients.
Court documents allege that a dummy "lecturer program" was often made up of social events for company employees, pharmacists and others. According to the statement of charges, events were held regularly in places such as strip clubs, restaurants with barely dressed waitresses and private hotel rooms.
"Insys would provide large amounts of alcohol and sales managers and representatives would also pay for lavish benefits, such as expensive bottles of wine," the same source added: "Insys has embarked on an unjust and misleading ploy to nationally. "
The Attorney General's Office also alleges that in Maryland and elsewhere in the country, Insys' representatives had "inappropriate sexual or other intimate relationships" with the prescribers, while encouraging them to write prescriptions from Subsys. A doctor residing in Maryland even received subsys for personal consumption, they say.
In the end, Frosh says the Arizona company has pulled about $ 20 million out of Subsys' more than 3,000 prescriptions in Maryland.
Earlier this year, Maryland announced that it had recorded a record number of drug-related deaths in 2017. The alarming increase in fentanyl-related deaths was one of the most
—
Follow McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfadd
[ad_2]
Source link
