nj.com: Doctor admits taking payoffs from drug maker to prescribe powerful opioid
11/23/2019
A doctor who practiced in New Jersey and Pennsylvania pleaded guilty Friday for scheming to take more than $140,000 in bribes and kickbacks from a pharmaceutical company in return for prescribing a powerful opioid painkiller.
Dr. Kenneth Sun, 58, admitted in federal court to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
As part of the plea, Sun admitted that from 2012 to 2016 he conspired with others to solicit and receive bribes and kickbacks from Arizona-based drug maker Insys Therapeutics, in exchange for prescribing more than 28 million micrograms of Subsys, a highly-addictive painkiller that contains fentanyl. The synthetic opioid pain reliever is about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The Easton, Pennsylvania resident further admitted he doled out the drug in cases when it was not medically-needed, officials said. Regulators approved Subsys for use solely in pain cases involving cancer patients already tolerant to other treatments.