DOJ Intervenes in Insys Kickbacks Lawsuit

The Justice Department intervened in five lawsuits accusing Insys Therapeutics of False Claims Act violations.

The lawsuits allege that Insys paid doctors and nurse practitioners kickbacks to prescribe Subsys, a sublingual spray form of fentanyl. Numerous doctors and nurse practitioners named in the complaints allegedly accepted sham speaker program payments and were encouraged to prescribe the drug to patients who did not have cancer.

The intervention is in addition to the Justice Department’s separate criminal cases against Insys and Subsys prescribers. Some of the cases are currently pending while others have led to criminal convictions or guilty pleas.