WC Pain Doctor Pleads Guilty in Insys Fentanyl Bribery Scheme

Tuesday, February 19, 2019 | 0

A Manhattan pain doctor who treated injured workers pleaded guilty this week to accepting bribes from Insys Therapeutics, which is now the subject of nationwide prosecutions and lawsuits about overprescribing of the powerful opioid known as fentanyl.

Dr. Alexandru Burducea was indicted last March and his authority to treat injured workers was suspended by the New York State Workers' Compensation Board in April. He pleaded guilty this week to several charges relating to the fentanyl bribery investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced Thursday.

“As he admitted today, Alexandru Burducea, a prominent Manhattan pain management doctor, accepted tens of thousands of dollars in speaker fees from Insys in exchange for prescribing large volumes of Insys’ powerful fentanyl-based spray, Subsys,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. “Like many other doctors around the country, Dr. Burducea is now being held to account for his participation in this corrupt kickback scheme.”

The doctor prescribed the opioid spray repeatedly after accepting more than $68,400 for participating in a sham speaker's bureau set up by Insys, prosecutors said. The doctors were paid even if no one showed up to hear them speak, the investigation found.

In addition, Insys hired Burducea's girlfriend, now his wife, to work as a sales representative and paid her large commissions based on the volume of Subsys that was prescribed by her assigned doctors, Berman said. One of those doctors was her husband, Burducea.

Burducea, who had never prescribed Subsys before September 2014, became the 14th-highest prescriber of Subsys nationally by 2015, accounting for total net sales of the drug of approximately $621,345 in that quarter, prosecutors said.

His sentencing has been set for May 22. He faces up to five years in prison, and fines.

Four other New York doctors were indicted in the scheme last year, and a number of Insys officials and sales representatives in New York and other states have also pleaded guilty or are awaiting prosecution.

Last month, the former Insys CEO, Michael Babich, pleaded guilty to participating in a widespread scheme to bribe doctors, and he could be sentenced to as many as 25 years in prison, according to news reports.