Podcast appearances and mentions of pat beall

In February of 2019, we interviewed Palm Beach Post reporters Pat Beall and John Pacenti, about the trial of former executives from opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics. They’d been accused of racketeering, bribing doctors to prescribe their high-powered opioid fentanyl spray, Subsys, to patients who didn’t need it. A year later, the Insys executives have finally received sentences of 1 to 5 ½ years in prison. This is the first time big pharma execs have been convicted and sent to prison for racketeering. It’s arguable whether this sentence achieves justice for the 900-plus lives lost to opioid addiction that began with Subsys prescriptions. But, it does send a clear message to the rest of the pharmaceutical industry. To share their insight into the Insys sentencing, Palm Beach Post reporters, John Pacenti and Pat Beall return to the podcast. Together, we break-down what this case means for the rest of the pharmaceutical industry and the questions that remain.

NewsCycle host Alicia Preston speaks with Pat Beall, Senior Investigative Reporter with the Gannett-USA Today Network, Darrel Rowland, Public Affairs Editor for the Columbus Dispatch and Randy Ellis, Senior Investigative Reporter for the Oklahoman about the opioid epidemic in America and how states are fighting back.

Florida links to the Donald Trump-Russia story; Roger Stone speaks; Joe Biden visits. With host George Bennett of The Palm Beach Post, Sarasota Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson and special guest Pat Beall of The Palm Beach Post.

This is the 2nd in our 4 part series with the former head of the Office of Diversion Control for the DEA, Mr. Joseph Rannazzisi. We began this series by talking about the surprisingly candid report released on December 19th, 2018 by the Energy and Commerce Committee titled “Red Flags and Warning Signs Ignored: Opioid Distribution and Enforcement Concerns in West Virginia”. The purpose of the report was to investigate allegations of “opioid dumping” in West Virginia. In today’s podcast with Mr. Rannazzisi, who for over a decade was the front man in the government’s battle against the opioid epidemic, you’ll hear an in-depth conversation about how the diversion controls, that were supposed to be in place to protect the public from “opioid dumping”, failed in epic proportions. He gives a candid account of the friction and distrust that emerged between DEA and the DOJ that resulted in a breakdown in their ability to protect the American public from shipments of mass quantities of opioids, previously flagged as suspect. He’ll share his unfiltered comments on the passage of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Enforcement Act, a game-changing piece of legislation and you’ll learn about the people who were responsible for the legislative win for the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Rannazzisi offers his insights into the inter-workings of the Office of Diversion Control. As the department’s former leader, he was responsible for cracking down on doctors, pharmacies, drug manufacturers and distributors who did not follow the nation’s prescription drug laws. You may recall him from the 60 Minutes story titled “The Whistleblower” last fall. Greg is joined on this episode by guest, award winning investigative reporter, Pat Beall from the Palm Beach Post. Pat won Journalist of the Year for her work on The Post’s coverage of the heroin crisis, including profiles of the 216 people who died in 2015 from heroin-related overdoses, calculation of the cost of hospital care related to heroin treatment and a story linking Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to a fraudulent drug-screening company. Listen to this podcast, the second in our 4 part series, for a behind the scenes look at who was behind law changes that helped fuel America’s opioid epidemic.

We frame today’s podcast with Palm Beach Post reporters, John Pacenti and Pat Beall with a clip from the Insys Therapeutics rap video on the virtues of persuading doctors to prescribe higher doses of the company’s liquid opioid, Subsys. This week jurors in the Insys racketeering case in Boston heard the following lyrics from the company’s self-produced video; “I love titration. Yeah, it’s not a problem. I got new patients and I got a lot of ‘em”. That may be the most damning evidence against former executives of the company yet. In this second part of our series, we continue our conversation on the deceptive sales practices pioneered by Purdue Pharma more than 20 years ago, and perpetuated by others in the industry. In 2007, Purdue Pharma executives pled guilty to misbranding and deceptive marketing but the charges were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors and they were sentenced to just 300 hours of community service, thanks in part to Rudy Giuliani. In January, the trial began for former executives of Insys Therapeutics for essentially the same deceptive sales practices Purdue Pharma pled guilty to 12 years earlier. Palm Beach Post reporter, John Pacenti describes a corrupt operation willing to do almost anything to induce physicians to overprescribe their product, Subsys Fentanyl spray. We close today’s podcast with more of the self-produced Insys rap video on the virtues of persuading doctors to prescribe higher doses of Subsys. Go to Cover2.org to view the entire video featuring the company’s former director of sales, Alec Burlakoff, in a giant prescription bottle.

Back in January, the pharmaceutical trial of Insys Therapeutics and company founder, John Kapoor faced charges of racketeering. Allegedly, he and six former sales directors operated a scheme which paid bribes to physicians to prescribe the fentanyl spray SUBSYS, a high-powered opioid pain medication. Between 2012-2016, approximately 908 people overdosed and died due as a result of SUBSYS. Unfortunately, this tale is all too familiar for some. Back in 2007, Perdue Pharma pled guilty to these same sales practices and yet, little has been done to prevent future cases. Many companies, such as Insys Therapeutics are using this same questionable marketing today. Greg recently met with John Pacenti and Pat Beall to discuss more on this story and how years later, many pharmaceutical companies are still using these age-old tactics to push dangerous prescriptions. Hear more on today’s podcast.

Pat Beall of The Palm Beach Post sat down with Katherine Fitzgerald and Eddie Keller of the Reynolds Center to discuss her award winning work, "Dying for Care." Beall's investigation won the Bronze Award at the 2015 Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism. Visit businessjournalism.org to read her four-part investigation. Megan Calcote hosts the podcast series. Applications for the 2016 Barlett & Steele Awards are now open. Visit http://bit.ly/BarlettSteeleApp2016 to submit your work today.