Verdict reached in bribery trial of U.S. drug execs linked to opioid crisis

FILE PHOTO: John Kapoor (R), the billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc., leaves the federal courthouse during the trial accusing Insys executives of a wide-ranging scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., March 13, 2019. Picture taken March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - Jurors on Thursday said they had reached a verdict in the trial of the founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc and four colleagues accused of bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive painkiller, helping to drive the U.S. opioid drug abuse crisis.

A federal jury in Boston after 15 days of deliberations informed the court it was prepared to decide whether to convict or acquit John Kapoor, the Arizona-based drugmaker's former chairman, and his co-defendants of racketeering conspiracy.

Kapoor, 75, is the highest-ranking pharmaceutical executive to face trial in a case tied to a drug crisis that has led to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually. His 2017 arrest came the same day U.S. President Donald Trump declared the epidemic a public health emergency.

Prosecutors charged that Kapoor oversaw a wide-ranging scheme to bribe doctors nationwide by retaining them to act as speakers at poorly-attended sham events at restaurants ostensibly meant to educate clinicians about its fentanyl spray, Subsys.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Subsys in 2012 only for use in treating severe pain in cancer patients. Yet prosecutors claimed doctors who took bribes often prescribed Subsys to patients without cancer, helping boost sales for Insys.

Prosecutors said Kapoor also directed efforts to defraud insurers into paying for Subsys. His co-defendants include former Insys executives and managers Michael Gurry, Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee and Joseph Rowan.

All five pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. Lawyers for Kapoor at trial acknowledged that Insys paid doctors but contended that he believed they really were being paid to talk up the product's benefits.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot)