A jury in Boston has found former billionaire and drug company executive John Kapoor and four co-defendants guilty of bribing US doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid painkiller.

"Today's convictions mark the first successful prosecution of top pharmaceutical executives for crimes related to the illicit marketing and prescribing of opioids," said US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling.  "Just as we would street-level drug dealers, we will hold pharmaceutical executives responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic by recklessly and illegally distributing these drugs, especially while conspiring to commit racketeering along the way."

Kapoor is the founder of Insys Therapeutics, maker of Subsys.  The sublingual spray is designed to deliver a fast-acting dose of fentanyl under the tongues of cancer patients or others experiencing extreme pain.  Prosecutors showed the jury that Kapoor and the others paid doctors to prescribe the potent meds, and to lie to health insurance companies to ensure that it would be covered.

Tens of thousands of deaths have been caused by opioid overdoses in the US, and authorities are under increasing pressure to crackdown on so-called pill mills where nefarious doctors prescribe such powerful and addictive drugs willy-nilly.  It is hoped the guilty verdict could strengthen the cases against other pharmaceutical executives implicated in the opioid crisis.