Drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection today, about a week after agreeing to pay $225 million to settle a U.S. probe into bribes that it paid to doctors for prescribing a powerful opioid medication, Reuters reported. The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware made Insys the first drug manufacturer to turn to bankruptcy due to legal expenses brought on by accusations of responsibility in the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic. Insys said that it intends to continue operating its business while it pursues the sale of substantially all its assets under a court-supervised sale process. Chandler, Ariz.-based Insys, which manufactured the fentanyl spray Subsys, agreed on June 5 to settle the U.S. Justice Department probe and have a subsidiary plead guilty to fraud charges. A month earlier, a federal jury in Boston found Insys founder John Kapoor and four other former executives and managers guilty of engaging in a vast racketeering conspiracy.
