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In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo, Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor leaves federal court in Boston. Kapoor and former top employees of the pharmaceutical company are facing a reckoning for their role in a bribery scheme that prosecutors say boosted sales of a powerful, highly addictive painkiller and helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.Starting Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, seven people who worked for Insys Therapeutics will appear in Boston to be sentenced by a federal judge. (AP Images)

Ex-Drug Company Execs Face Sentencing In Opioid Bribery Case

Posted on: Monday, January 13, 2020

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The founder and former top employees of a pharmaceutical company are being sentenced in a bribery scheme that prosecutors say helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.

Starting Monday, seven people who worked for Insys Therapeutics will appear in Boston federal court for their sentencing.

The case against company founder John Kapoor and his associates was considered the first to hold an opioid maker criminally liable for an epidemic that’s claimed nearly 400,000 lives over two decades.

Prosecutors say the Arizona-based company paid millions of dollars in bribes to doctors to over prescribe a powerful, addictive opioid painkiller for cancer patients.