Doctor sentenced to federal prison for taking bribes to prescribe Subsys

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NEW YORK – A New Rochelle doctor with offices in Manhattan has been sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison in connection with a scheme to prescribe Subsys, a potent fentanyl-based spray, in exchange for bribes and kickbacks from Subsys’ manufacturer, Insys Therapeutics.

Jeffrey Goldstein, 51, pled guilty in August 2019.

Goldstein prescribed the fentanyl opioid in return for nearly $200,000 in bribes from the drug’s manufacturer. “Goldstein put his own patients at risk in order to satisfy his own greed, and will now spend time in federal prison for recklessly prescribing this highly addictive and powerful opioid,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss.

“This sentence sends a loud and clear signal to the medical community that if you take bribes in return for prescribing, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and risk significant prison time,” she said.

Subsys is a powerful painkiller some 50 to 100 times more potent that morphine. The FDA approved Subsys only for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Prescriptions typically cost thousands of dollars each month, and Medicare and Medicaid, as well as commercial insurers, reimburses prescriptions written by Goldstein.




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