[Pharmwaste] "Insys ignored warnings about marketing powerful opioid Subsys"

[Ed Gottlieb]

Executives and managers of pharmaceutical manufacturer Insys were accused, in December, of bribing doctors to do off label prescribing of a powerful opioid sold under the trade name, "Subsys".  Now, Sen. McCaskill, who leads a Congressional investigation into drug makers’ roles in the national opioid addiction epidemic, has released evidence that they used fraudulent prior authorization practices to get insurers to pay, even after executives were warned by a consultant of the lack of oversight.

"Federal prosecutors alleged that Babich and the other former Insys executives “approved and fostered” fraudulent prior authorization practices..."

Insys “lacked even basic measures to prevent its employees from manipulating the prior authorization process and received clear notice of these deficiencies,”
“In the case of Subsys patient Sarah Fuller, an audio recording reveals that an Insys employee repeatedly misled representatives of Envision Pharmaceutical Services to obtain approval for her prescription,” the McCaskill report concluded. “The result, in the case of Ms. Fuller, was death due to allegedly improper and excessive Subsys use.”

Insys is also being sued by Anthem, an insurer who says that 54% of claims, totaling $19 million, that they paid to Insys for Sybsys prescriptions were falsified.



https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2017/09/06/insys-warnings-subsys-mccaskill/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=3e2a46f06c-MR&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-3e2a46f06c-149620549



also:



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-insys-opioids/senator-reveals-results-of-opioid-inquiry-into-insys-idUSKCN1BH34O?feedType=RSS&virtualBrandChannel=11563





Ed Gottlieb
Chair, Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal
Board Member, New York Product Stewardship Council
Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381
fax: (607) 273-8433
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