Families Hoping for Justice From Prescription Bribes Trial

In a photo taken Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, Deborah Fuller poses for a photograph for The Associated Press with a pillow showing a photo of her late daughter, Sarah Fuller, left, who passed of a prescription drug overdose, and her during an interview in her home in West Berlin, N.J. The trial of the Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, who accused of scheming to bribe doctors into prescribing a powerful painkiller, is putting a spotlight on the nation's deadly opioid crisis. AP Photo/Julio Cortez

BOSTON—Drug company executives weren’t satisfied with sales for their powerful painkiller, so they devised a plan, prosecutors say: Offer cash to doctors in exchange for prescriptions. Soon, the highly addictive fentanyl spray was flourishing, and executives were raking in millions.

Now, the company’s wealthy founder is heading to trial in a case that’s putting a spotlight on the federal government’s efforts to go after those it says are responsible for fueling the deadly drug crisis.