Ex-pharma CEO gets over 2 years in prison for bribery scheme

PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The former head of drug company was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in federal prison in a bribery and kickbacks scheme that prosecutors say helped fuel the opioid crisis. Michael Babich, a Scottsdale, Arizona, resident who was CEO of Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced Wednesday in Boston federal court after pleading guilty to conspiracy and fraud and serving as a key witness for prosecutors. Employees for Arizona-based Insys paid millions of dollars in bribes to doctors nationwide to overprescribe Subsys, a powerful, addictive fentanyl-based painkiller for cancer patients, prosecutors argued. They said the company paid doctors fees for participating in sham speaking events. It also misled insurers to get payment for the drug