The blistering inside story of a startup that made millions pushing opioids-until its cutthroat
tactics were exposed and its executives put behind bars John Kapoor had amassed a small fortune
in pharmaceuticals when he conceived of a new product. It was the 2000s and opioids were big
business. If Kapoor an immigrant and the billionaire founder of Insys could find a new way to
administer the highly potent fentanyl he could patent his invention and sell it to those in
need-at a steep price. The only problem: There weren't enough people in need. Kapoor's drug was
approved for breakthrough cancer pain. If Subsys was going to turn a profit the company would
need to persuade doctors to prescribe it off-label for other lesser forms of pain. This is
the story of how Insys turned a niche drug into big business. With executives leading the
charge Insys sales reps seduced doctors with charm money and sex. Its administrators lied to
health care providers claiming recipients had cancer when they did not. It pushed drugs onto
patients that would have benefited from safer options or no drugs at all. The strategy worked:
When Insys went public it notched the biggest IPO of its year. But several employees reached
their limit and quietly blew the whistle bringing the full force of the justice system upon
the drug maker. In The Hard Sell author and National Magazine Award-finalist Evan Hughes lays
bare the pharma playbook. He shows how drug makers like Insys fueled by greed and a hunger for
market share turn deception into profit. The book represents a stunning vindication but also
a cautionary tale. As Hughes shows Insys didn't do anything its competitors weren't also
doing. It was simply worse at covering its tracks--
