Insys exec who dressed as a life-size fentanyl bottle gets 26 months in prison

Alec Burlakoff, the former vice president of sales at Insys Therapeutics who became famous for making a video of himself rapping as a life-size fentanyl bottle, was sentenced Jan. 23 to 26 months in prison for his role in a scheme to boost sales of Insys' opioid drug, Law360 reported. 

In 2015, Mr. Burlakoff and his colleagues made a video to be shown at a sales meeting that included him dressed as a bottle of Subsys, Insys' fentanyl spray, rapping about high dosages of the addictive opioid to the tune of an A$AP Rocky song. 

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs to deliver a lighter sentence because Mr. Burlakoff had cooperated and played a big part in getting former Insys CEO Michael Babich to cooperate.

But the judge said she didn't want to send the message that other drug company executives could get away with a similar scheme as Insys executives, who bribed physicians to prescribe their opioid. 

Mr. Burlakoff is the sixth former Insys employee to be sentenced, with all the execs receiving sentences between a year and 33 months, Law360 reported. 

Insys founder, John Kapoor, was also sentenced Jan. 23, getting 5.5 years in prison, though the government had asked for 15. 

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