A FLORIDA doctor accused of taking kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics to prescribe its fentanyl spray should face a civil trial next month despite his recent bankruptcy, federal prosecutors say.

In a filing on Wednesday in Tampa federal court, lawyers for the Middle District of Florida US Attorney’s Office said their civil lawsuit against Edward Lubin stems from the government’s “police or regulatory power,” and so not automatically paused like most legal claims against a newly bankrupt debtor.

They noted that federal appeals courts in other cases have ruled that lawsuits brought by the government under the federal False Claims Act, like the one against Lubin, are examples of police or regulatory power.

Lubin had notified the court of his Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier on Wednesday, saying it should halt the case, which is set for trial Aug 2 in Tampa. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It would be a rare civil trial under the False Claims Act for a doctor caught up in the kick­back scandal involving the defunct Arizona-based drugmaker, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 following a settlement with the US Justice Department. Dozens of other doctors and former executives and employees of Insys have separately faced criminal charges over a scheme centred on Subsys, an opioid medication approved for treating severe pain in cancer patients.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2023