Two men are charged with carrying out a plan to pay physicians to increase their orders of the highly addictive painkiller.
NEW YORK -- A New Jersey man was one of two people charged this week by federal prosecutors with scheming to pay doctors in return for prescribing millions of dollars of a Fentanyl-based painkilling spray.
Fernando Serrano, 30, of Manalapan, a former sales representative for an unnamed drug company, was charged Thursday with violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, said the office of Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Similarly charged was Jonathan Roper, 37, of Commack, N.Y., a former district manager at the company.
Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. (/Richard Drew, | AP)Bharara said the scheme represented one way the highly addictive opioid has gotten into the black market.
"Fentanyl is an incredibly dangerous and highly addictive drug that is finding its way into, and destroying, too many lives in our communities," he said. "As alleged, former drug company employees Jonathan Roper and Fernando Serrano corruptly induced doctors to prescribe millions of dollars' worth of Fentanyl through thousands of dollars in kickbacks disguised as phony educational programs."
Doctor sentenced for taking bribes
According to a criminal complaint, Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine as a painkiller. The nasal spray product is FDA-approved only for cancer patients who developed a tolerance for other painkillers, it said, adding that only physicians that go through approved training are allowed to prescribe it.
Serrano's former employer had an incentive-based bonus program that paid him as much as $100,000 a quarter for convincing physicians to prescribe the nasal spray, the complaint said.
It said Serrano arranged numerous meetings that ostensibly were educational programs about the drug, but in most cases were social events. Many times, it said, the attendees had attended the same presentations earlier, and didn't have to pay for meals and alcoholic drinks.
Serrano and Roper, the complaints said, paid doctors to speak at the events, with one physician being paid $147,000 in 2014 in speaking fees.
In the same year, that physician, also unnamed in the complaint, prescribed more than $3 million in Fentanyl spray. A second speaker-physician, paid $112,000 for speaking fees, ordered more than $2 million in Fentanyl spray, it said.
The two physicians were among the top prescribers of Fentanyl spray in the country in 2014, it said.
Roper also would dole out speaking engagements to physicians based on the number of Fentanyl prescriptions they ordered, it said. Those who ordered less would get "hit in the pocket," the complaint said.
Each of the charges Roper and Serrano face carry a maximum of five yeas in prison, Bharara's office said.
Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.