Insys Therapeutics
Insys Therapeutics Opioid Fraud
Estimated impact: $225M DOJ settlement; executives imprisoned; company bankrupt
Insys marketed sublingual fentanyl spray (Subsys) for non-cancer pain through a systematic bribery scheme. Sales reps were trained to deceive insurance prior-authorization processes, and the company paid kickbacks to prescribing physicians. The founder and executives were convicted of RICO charges.
Decision context
Whether to implement a sales strategy that involved bribing physicians and defrauding insurance companies to expand off-label use of a potent fentanyl product.
Biases present in the decision
Toxic combinations
- Echo Chamber
- Yes Committee
Reference class base rates
Across all 146 curated case studies in our library:
Lessons learned
- Groupthink in a sales-driven culture normalized fraud when leadership framed kickbacks as standard industry practice
- Authority bias from the founder (John Kapoor) made employees reluctant to question obviously illegal directives
- Framing the prior-authorization gaming as "patient access" masked the ethical and legal reality
Source: DOJ Press Release, "Founder and Four Executives of Insys Therapeutics Convicted of RICO Conspiracy" (2019) (Case Study)
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