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Drug company used rap video to push for higher doses, sales

Opioid Kickback Scheme Rap Video
Posted at 12:24 PM, Feb 15, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-15 14:25:38-05

BOSTON — Employees at a drug company accused of bribing doctors rapped and danced around a life-size bottle of their highly addictive fentanyl spray in a video meant to motivate sales representatives into getting patients on higher doses.

The video was shown to jurors this week in the closely watched trial in Boston of wealthy Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor and four other onetime executives.

They're charged with scheming to pay doctors bribes in exchange for prescriptions of the drug meant for cancer patients with severe pain. They have all denied wrongdoing.

RELATED: Former Insys employee tells all about fraudulent scheme to boost painkiller profits

In the video, sales reps rap about titration, the process of increasing the strength of a patient's prescription until it reaches the adequate level.

Prosecutors say it was shown at a 2015 meeting to fire up employees.