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One Of The Big Bosses Of The Pharmaceutical Industry Arrested, Accused Of Conspiracy And Corruption

One Of The Big Bosses Of The Pharmaceutical Industry Arrested, Accused Of Conspiracy And Corruption

Last October, billionaire John Kapoor, founder and owner of the US pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics was arrested, accused by the authorities of leading a drug drug cartel. His firm has reportedly been involved in the corruption of doctors and clinics, pushing them to prescribe the Subsys painkiller to their patients.

The drug in question: what is it?

Subsys is a vaporizer containing fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid.

Opioids, such as morphine and heroin, are derived from opium, a substance extracted from the poppy and are used as powerful painkillers or narcotics.

The main danger of opioids is that they induce addiction and a feeling of lack in the consumer, pushing him to increase the frequency of the doses and the dose. Especially since the overdose quickly arrived, resulting in a potentially fatal respiratory depression.

Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than morphine. It is used in particular to relieve severe pain of certain terminal diseases such as cancer.

Ingestion by the adult of only two milligrams of fentanyl may cause a fatal overdose.

The "opioid crisis"
According to the experts, the United States is plagued by a real epidemic of opioids, with more than 2.5 million Americans suffering from opioid addiction, whether medically prescribed painkillers or narcotics.

According to market research firm IMS Health, 236 million prescriptions for opioids were issued by doctors in 2016.

On the other hand, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 40 thousand Americans would have died from an opioid overdose the same year.

The development of such a crisis is leading more and more states to hold the manufacturers of opioids and doctors responsible for both overproduction and over-prescription of these drugs.

The fight against "medical murder"
For Donald Trump, the opioid crisis is a national emergency. He said, "We will take significant legal action against people and businesses that harm our people." For example, the US President, as part of a campaign against the "massive medical murder" of Americans, has required, among other things, that the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country be subject to judicial reviews.

One of the big bosses of the pharmaceutical industry arrested
In this way, 74-year-old John Kapoor, along with seven other former and current leaders of the big firm, were charged with medical fraud and national conspiracy for the unlawful distribution of the Subsys as a whole. that anti pain medication, were stopped.

Shortly after, Insys Therapeutics' shares fell by 20%, and the CEO resigned from his position.

Big pharma and the pharmaceutical lobby
Regarded by some as the most powerful lobby on the planet, the pharmaceutical industry, commonly referred to as "big pharma" is being accused by more and more people of seeking financial profits at the expense of our health and to exert pressure for this especially from health professionals.

Too often, drugs are put on the market while trials to show their safety have not yet been sufficient. Pressure is being put on health professionals to encourage them to prescribe these drugs to patients, despite their possible serious side effects. Pressures that can also take the form of gifts to doctors.

They would also be at the highest levels of politics and diplomacy. According to Corporate Europe Observatory, the pharmaceutical industry would indeed "firmly hold the reins of a vast lobbying machine, richly endowed, which has an almost systematic access to decision makers of the European Commission".

There would be really cause for concern. In the United States, however, the wind may be turning.
Big Bosses Of The Pharmaceutical Industry Arrested