Two Arizona doctors will have to pay a combined sum of over $500,000 to resolve claims that they took hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for prescribing a highly addictive opioid prescription drug that contains fentanyl, the Attorney General’s Office said.
The Attorney General’s Office claims Dr. Nikesh Seth, a Scottsdale-based pain management doctor, and Dr. Sheldon Gingerich, a Tucson-based pain management doctor, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in sham educational “speaker fees” from Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics in exchange for prescribing Subsys, an opioid prescription drug, a news release said.
“People put a sacred trust in their doctors, especially when they’re prescribing opioids,” Attorney General Mark Brnovich in the news release. “We will hold accountable everyone who violated that trust and improperly profited from Arizona’s opioid crisis.”
Under the settlements, the doctors must forfeit all of the money they collected from Insys and make an additional payment to the state. Seth must forfeit more than $229,000 and pay an additional $145,000 to Arizona, the news release said. Gingerich must forfeit more than $80,000 and pay more than $50,000 to the state.
Seth is also barred from receiving any money or substantial gifts from any prescription drug makers, sellers or promoters for the next 10 years, the news release said. Gingerich is barred permanently from prescribing controlled substances, taking money from pharmaceutical companies or keeping compensation received from practicing medicine.
These settlements are the latest development in the multidefendant lawsuits filed by Brnovich over Insys opioid sales practices. Previous settlements include a $9.5 million settlement with a former Insys vice president of sales and a $2 million settlement with the former CEO of Insys.
Insys pleaded guilty to federal charges, declared bankruptcy and no longer to exist, the news release said.
The Attorney General’s Office lawsuit continues against one other Arizona doctor and founder and former president of Insys, John Kapoor.
