Feds say 5 NYC doctors took bribes from drug maker to prescribe opioid

An email from one sales representative gave explicit instructions on how many new patients were needed to help meet a company target
NBC News (US)
Friday, March 16, 2018

Five Manhattan doctors were paid more than $800,000 by a pharmaceutical company to prescribe a spray version of the highly potent and addictive opioid fentanyl to more and more patients whether they needed it or not, according to an indictment handed up in federal court. The money was earmarked as "speaker fees" for educational lectures on the drug that the doctors had agreed to give to medical professionals. In reality, according to federal prosecutors, the "lectures" were just booze-fueled social gatherings, and the fees were kickbacks paid to prescribe the drug, Subsys.