Illinois Attorney General Reaches $4.5M Settlement in Opioid Marketing Case

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has reached a $4.5 million settlement with an Arizona-based pharmaceutical company that her office sued for deceptive marketing of an opioid drug meant for cancer patients.

Madigan said Insys Therapeutics Inc. “pushed a highly addictive opioid in complete disregard for patients’ health to increase company profits.”

The lawsuit she filed last year accused Insys of selling Subsys, a drug significantly more powerful than morphine, to treat a wide variety of pain such as back and neck pain. The drug was not approved for those uses.

Insys officials didn’t respond to phone messages left by the Associated Press at the company’s Phoenix-area office. The company has previously said the marketing of Subsys was appropriate.

Madigan says the $4.5 million will fund drug treatment programs.