It has been almost three weeks since a trial wrapped up against five former Insys Therapeutics executives accused of bribing physicians to prescribe a powerful opioid painkiller, and there is still no jury verdict, according to Bloomberg.
The 12 jurors are weighing whether Insys founder John Kapoor and four other company executives participated in a racketeering conspiracy. The five Insys employees allegedly conspired to pay physicians hundreds of thousands of dollars to physicians nationwide to promote and prescribe its under-the-tongue fentanyl spray Subsys.
The trial lasted 10 weeks, featured 39 witnesses and more than 100 exhibits.
"The truth is, nobody knows what it means, because jury deliberations are a black box," David Schumacher, a former federal health prosecutor of healthcare fraud cases who is now a partner at Hooper Lundy & Bookman PC, told Bloomberg. "It could mean nothing more than that the jury is carefully weighing the evidence."
The verdict is highly anticipated. Because Mr. Kapoor is the first pharmaceutical CEO to be prosecuted in connection to the nationwide opioid crisis, it may have implications for other executives charged with similar allegations.