NJ sues fentanyl drug maker INSYS for role in opioid crisis

The drug called Subsys is a fast-acting spray form of the powerful opioid fentanyl. In a four-count lawsuit filed Thursday, New Jersey’s attorney general charged the drug’s manufacturer, INSYS Therapeutics with consumer fraud stating “blatant disregard for the law” that put “hundreds” of lives in jeopardy and “led to the death of at least one New Jersey resident” — 32-year-old Sarah Fuller of Camden County. Attorney General Chris Porrino called it “titanic greed … nothing short of evil.”

“Increasing profits and defrauding customers is bad enough. And, doing so while putting the residents of New Jersey at risk makes it even worse,” he said.

Porrino explained, INSYS aggressively marketed the highly-addictive drug for broad patient use, even though the FDA had only approved Subsys for cancer patients in terrible pain. He charged the company with “flooding the market with a fentanyl product 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine …” The complaint states that, as part of its marketing ploy, INSYS plied doctors with “sham speaking and consulting fees …” and other illegal kickbacks.

“We are investigating a number of physicians who have prescribed this substance. One of those doctors has already been suspended,” said Porrino.

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