Aint no party like an Insys party

Insys was the startup unicorn of the opioid crisis, and boy did they know how to party.

Becca & Adam meet Insys CEO John Kapoor and his rowdy band of crooked pharmaceutical reps as they slither their way through doctors offices across the country, pushing their marquee product: Fentanyl! The shady sales reps unleashed the powerful opioid on unsuspecting patients and bribed their doctors to increase dosages through an illegal kickback scheme. Eventually their shameless conspiracies and criminal shakedowns lead to a public meltdown and federal racketeering charges, but not before Kapoor could be crowned Forbes coverboy! 

John Kapoor (right) and the fictionalized version of him, “Jack Neel,” played by Andy Garcia in the movie Pain Hustlers.

Kapoor (middle) opening “Kapoor Hall” (it’s since been renamed) 

[Kapoor’s] idea for what became Subsys was to pair fentanyl, a narcotic 80 times more potent than morphine, with spray technology that would allow patients to get a dose under their tongues. - Forbes

One of the only older picture of Kapoor I could find.

Kapoor at University of Buffalo, where he received his doctorate from the school of pharmacy. At this point I think he had given UB pharmacy school their largest gift ever - $250m

This is the last box of subsys delivered to someone who overdosed from the drug

John Kapoor in the lab - I’m obsessed with carefully curated photo ops in a science lab.

Michael Babich in 2012 - lil beaker boi.

Subsys sales guides - note that one of the selling points of subsys was that it was SUGAR FREE!!!

The Westin Lake Las Vegas, one place where Insys would hold sales retreats 

Here’s a group of Insys sales reps - but this could EASILY be the cast of bachelor in paradise 

An email from a sales manager (read) note that it’s not you must sell to 1 doc a day, it’s your doc must prescribe Subsys to 1 patient a day - also the typos in here are wild.

Alec Burlakoff in a 60 minutes interview 

A pain clinic - this one  in florida was the subject of the movie “American Pain” 

A doctor posted a picture at one of the Insys “speakers program” events 

Another doctor at a Speakers program - they’d basically just take their friends out to drinks and get a fat check in the mail afterwards

Insys KEPT A SPREADSHEET of how much money they paid the doctor compared to how much they were prescribing.

Insys executives used rap video to push sales of potentially lethal opioid - CBS News

Alec Burlakoff inside the subsys costume 

Sunrise lee (left) at Rachel’s 

A still from the movie Pain Huslters - the character that is supposed to be Burlakoff is played by Chris Evans, and Sunrise Lee / Tracy Krane character is Emily Blunt - who SUCKS at playing a stripper btw

A screenshot from the internet archive from the day that Insys IPOed 

For a brief period of time after Insys goes public in 2014 everything’s comin up Kapoor. Insys stock price is at $15 a share, Kapoor ranked no. 335 on The Forbes 400 list, he’s on the cover of the magazine looking - the YEAR AFTER ELIZABETH HOLMES

But behind the scenes, the department of justice is making their case, using our favorite legal tool… RICO!! Remember, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a U.S. federal law passed in 1970 and was originally designed to target the mafia. It basically allows the government to target not only specific individuals committing crimes but also the organization they belong to.

“The mob at least has a code of conduct, they only do bodily harm to other bad guys. These people didn’t care…”

John Kapoor was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in January 2020. Keep in mind, the max sentence for a RICO charge is 20 years.

Gordon Freedman, a prominent Manhattan physician, allowed his medical judgment to be corrupted by hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes that he accepted from Insys in return for prescribing Subsys, a potent fentanyl painkiller. - Sentenced to 17 years

White collar criminals are MORE dangerous than violent criminals. I’m sorry but kapoor killed how many people? How many years did Whitey Bulger get and how many people did he kill?