Insys Settles to End One Opioid Attack, Gets Hit With Another

Insys Therapeutics will pay Massachusetts $500,000 to settle charges that it misleadingly marketed its fentanyl spray and paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe the opioid, state Attorney General Maura Healey announced.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino filed a lawsuit making similar claims against the company.

The attorneys general say Insys improperly pushed its opioid for off-label uses to treat relatively minor pain, beyond the drug’s FDA-approved indication for significant pain from cancer. They say the company paid kickbacks to prescribers in the form of speaking fees for addressing other health professionals about the drug.