IS IT ENOUGH?

Ex-Drug Execs Get Over 2 Years in Opioid Bribery Scheme

Prosecutors had sought more than 10 years for each, arguing that the scheme helped fuel the deadly opioid crisis.

Two former drug company executives have been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for a bribery and kickbacks scheme that prosecutors say exacerbated the opioid crisis. Richard Simon, the former national sales director at Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced in federal court in Boston to 33 months, while Joseph Rowan, former regional sales director for the company, was sentenced to 27 months. Each was reportedly ordered to serve an additional three years of probation after prison time, forfeit more than $2 million, and pay restitution for an amount that has not yet been determined. Prosecutors had pushed for more than 10 years behind bars for the men. They are among seven Insys executives sentenced this month in a scheme that prosecutors say involved company employees paying millions of dollars in bribes to doctors to overprescribe an addictive fentanyl-based painkiller for cancer patients dubbed Subsys.