Drug enterprise founder pleads no longer guilty to opioid bribe scheme

A pharmaceutical enterprise founder accused of main a conspiracy to bribe doctors to prescribe a powerful opioid pain medicine will fight the prices towards him and believes he should be vindicated, his attorney referred to Thursday.

John Kapoor, of Insys Therapeutics Inc., pleaded not guilty in Boston's federal courthouse, and his legal professional entreated the judge to permit him to remove an electronic monitoring bracelet while he awaits trial. attorney Brian Kelly mentioned Kapoor is rarely a flight risk and needs to clear his name in court docket.

"he isn't going to barren region the United States on account of this case," Kelly advised the decide. "He doesn't trust or not it's a powerful case. He wants to combat this case."

The case centers on a particularly addictive fentanyl spray it's made by way of Insys Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company whose company workplaces are in Chandler, Arizona.

Kapoor, 74, and different Insys executives and executives are charged with offering kickbacks to medical doctors to write down significant numbers of prescriptions for the strong opioid it really is supposed for melanoma patients known as Subsys. Former CEO Michael L. Babich and others are set to move to trial next yr and have pleaded not guilty.

The charges towards Kapoor of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy each carry a sentence of up to twenty years in penal complex upon conviction. Conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback legal guidelines requires up to 5 years in reformatory.

Kapoor, who looked in courtroom on Thursday in a suit and tie, has been free on $1 million bail considering that he became arrested via a dozen armed brokers in his domestic state of Arizona closing month, in line with his attorney. He emigrated from India decades in the past, is now a U.S. citizen and passed over his passport to authorities after his arrest.

Assistant U.S. legal professional Nathaniel Yeager mentioned prosecutors worry he'll flee the nation, including that they accept as true with he has entry to as a minimum $2 billion.

The judge failed to automatically issue a ruling Thursday on no matter if to remove Kapoor's GPS monitoring requirement.

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comply with Alanna Durkin Richer at http://twitter.com/aedurkinricher. read extra of her work at http://bit.ly/2hIhzDb