New Delhi:
A former stripper-turned-regional sales director has been accused of performing a lap dance for a doctor who was being persuaded to prescribe a fentanyl spray to people who did not have cancer. According to reports, ex-stripper Sunrise Lee took Paul Madison, an Illinois-based anesthesiologist, to the Underground, a top nightclub in Chicago, in 2012 with two other sales reps after a business dinner to discuss the drug, Subsys where one of the reps claims that she saw Lee sitting on the doctor's lap while the doctor touched her inappropriately.
The testimony of the reps is the latest to emerge in the first criminal trial of painkiller manufacturer executives as authorities try to find culprits of the opioid abuse. Prosecutors claim that Madison's case is just one of a handful of doctors at the center of the Insys case. They accused have all pleaded not guilty to racketeering and deny any wrongdoing.
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According to prosecutors, the doctors were targeted with bribes to push Subsys on patients without a prescription. On Tuesday, attorneys sought to discredit the rep's testimony.
The executives, Lee, John Kapoor, Michael Gurry, Richard Simon and Joseph Rowan have denied any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy.
They also argued that prosecutors are trying to make an example of Insys, a small segment of the pharmaceutical industry they say is unfairly maligned by a government trying to show it is making a dent in the opioid crisis, according to the Associated Press. And on Tuesday, their attorneys have also sought to discredit the rep's testimony.
They asked whether her memory of the events that night could be foggy because she had been drinking. Madison, who is reported to have received at least $70,800 in speaker fees from Insys, was convicted last November in another, unrelated case for taking money from insurers for chiropractic operations which are said to have never taken place. Madison's lawyer on Tuesday said that his client wishes for a 'no comment'. Testimony will continue in trial this Wednesday.
(With Inputs from agencies)
