releases: https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/mccaskill-how-insys-pushed-opioid-sales
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/mccaskill-how-insys-pushed-opioid-sales | McCaskill: How Insys pushed opioid sales | 2018-10-18 | 2018 | 2018-10 | Democrat | House | MO | Claire McCaskill | M001170 | www.mccaskill.senate.gov | legacy | McCaskill: How Insys pushed opioid sales Thursday, October 18, 2018 By: Sam Baker Anew reportreleased by Sen. Claire McCaskill reveals how Insys, a pharmaceutical company, aggressively pushed its fentanyl product, Subsys, to increase the number and strength of prescriptions written for it. Details,via Caitlin: The model Insys used following the drug's approval in 2012 is strikingly similar to the one Purdue Pharma used, beginning in the 1990s, to market OxyContin. It featured speaker programs in which doctors, paid by Insys, spoke with colleagues about the drug. Sales representatives had large financial incentives to sell as much of the drug as possible via prescriptions, and higher dosages of the drug led to higher bonuses. Between the lines:One illuminating email included in the report summarizes what appears to have been the mindset: What drives us all? COMPENSATION," the national director of sales wrote to district sales managers in 2013. The strategy was effective: Subsys prescribers tended to write more scripts and generate more revenue than other fentanyl prescribers. Why it matters:While the new Insys CEO has called the company's previous actions "unacceptable," there's clearly been a pattern when it comes to marketing opioids. "Just as Insys adopted and expanded methods Purdue pioneered, the next pharmaceutical company moving rapidly to establish market share in a crowded field may look to Insys as a model," the report says. Print Email Tweet | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |