Jacob FuchsDirector of Pharmacy at CSC, St. Luke's Health System · Director of Pharmacy

Pharma Bribery Scandal: Fentanyl Sales Director's Lap Dance #shorts

31 Aug 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:46

The video recounts testimony from a federal criminal trial involving Insys Therapeutics, the maker of the fentanyl spray Sub‑Zee (also called Subsyd). Insys targeted a tiny market of opioid‑tolerant cancer patients and created a "speaker program" that functioned as a kickback scheme, rewarding doctors and physician assistants for prescribing the drug. A highlighted case shows a physician assistant who went from zero to about 672 Sub‑Zee prescriptions after joining the program, receiving roughly $44,000 in payments. The Justice Department found many of these prescriptions medically unnecessary. Insys ultimately resolved the case with a $225 million criminal and civil settlement, and its founder John Capers plus four executives were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy, receiving prison sentences ranging from 13 months to 66 months. The narrator argues that the incentive structure worked exactly as designed, implying that similar schemes are widespread in pharma.

Chapters

A pharmaceutical sales director gave a doctor a lap dance while her company was pushing him to prescribe fentanyl. It's not satire. That's testimony from a federal criminal trial in pharma. The drug was Subsyd, a fentanyl spray approved for breakthrough cancer pain in adults who were already opioid tolerant. The problem for Insys, the manufacturer, is that was a very small market. So Insys built what it called a speaker program. And this is where it gets weird. According to the Justice Department, those programs were used to give kickbacks to targeted practitioners for more Sub-Zee prescriptions and higher doses of those prescriptions. Here is one example. One physician assistant wrote exactly zero Sub-Zee prescriptions during the drug's first year. After joining the speaker program, he wrote about 672 prescriptions and received roughly $44,000 from Sub-Zee. The Justice Department Department said many of those prescriptions were medically unnecessary. Insys, the manufacturer, ultimately entered a $225 million criminal and civil resolution. And this did not end with just corporate fines. Insys founder John Capers and 4 former executives were convicted by a federal jury of racketeering and conspiracy. Capers was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison, and the 4 executives received prison sentences ranging from 1 year and 1 day to 33 months. In this case in pharma, the incentive structure did not fail. It worked exactly as it was designed, and there's many more just like it. If you follow the incentives, you'll start to see the true pharma problem.