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Colorado doctor sentenced for taking bribes from pharmaceutical company

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A judge sentenced a former Colorado physician to two years in federal prison for taking over $340,000 in bribes from pharmaceutical companies, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Jeffrey Kesten, 61, of Evergreen, was sentenced Feb. 24. Following his release from prison, he will be on three years of supervised release, according to a news release. 

“Accepting kickbacks and bribes in exchange for prescribing medication not only compromises the integrity of Federal health care programs; it can also gravely endanger beneficiaries,” said Curt Muller, special agent in charge with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

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According to the plea agreement, Kesten conspired with Insys Therapeutics Inc. employees between late 2012 and November 2015 and received about $344,000 from its employees. Insys is the manufacturer of Subsys, a powerful fentanyl spray.

Fentanyl is at least 50 times stronger than morphine and to ensure each patient’s safety, the Food and Drug Administration requires Subsys prescribers, patients and pharmacies to enroll in and comply with the Transmucosal Immediate Release Fentanyl Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program.

Officials said Kesten disregarded the rules imposed by the program and failed to notify his patients about the risk posed by the drug. 

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The bribes Kesten took were disguised as payments for delivering speeches to his medical peers; however, he often delivered no programs at all, according to the release.

As part of his plea agreement, Kesten admitted that he began a quid pro quo relationship with Insys and said the payments affected his prescribing decisions.

During the nearly three-year period, Kesten became one of the pharmaceutical companies top revenue-generating prescribers. Prescriptions for Subsys typically cost thousands of dollars per month, and Medicare and Medicaid paid millions of dollars to cover the prescriptions written by Kesten.

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“You have to be able to trust your doctor’s medical judgement,” said U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan. 

“We’ll hold physicians and medical professionals accountable for taking bribes and kickbacks, especially when they are prescribing powerful drugs to vulnerable patients.”

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