Doctor headed to jail, must repay $2.1M in drug scheme

A Hudson doctor has been sentenced to prison for his role in a prescription drug scheme where he was compensated for issuing prescriptions for a drug that treats uncontrollable bouts of crying and laughing.

Dr. Deepak Raheja, 66, faces 30 months in prison and was ordered to help pay $2,163,995 in restitution and a $50,000 fine for his role in promoting the drug and issuing prescriptions to patients who did not need it.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi on Friday also ordered Raheja to surrender his medical license.

The case centered around a pharmaceutical kickback conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors say Raheja along with Gates Mills Dr. Bhupinder Sawhny conspired with pharmaceutical representatives Frank Mazzucco of Dublin, Ohio, and Gregory Hayslette of Aurora to prescribe and promote a drug called Nuedexta.

The drug is used in the treatment of Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), a condition where patients who have a neurologic or brain injury suffer involuntary, sudden and frequent bouts of crying or laughter.

Prosecutors say that between February 2011 and July 2016, Raheja received kickbacks and other perks for prescribing the drug to patients whether the treatment was warranted or not.

The representatives of drugmaker Avanir Pharmaceuticals created a speakers bureau where doctors, including Raheja, were invited to high-end restaurants where they gave presentations using slides prepared by the company.

Court records show Raheja gave some 211 such presentations at restaurants and doctor’s offices between October 2011 and April 2016 and was paid about $1,500 for each talk.

Prosecutors say he received about $331,550 in payments from Avanir and wrote about 10,088 prescriptions for Nuedexta — the most in the country.

Some of these prescriptions, prosecutors say, were given to patients who did not have PBA, or he falsely diagnosed patients with PBA and even recorded fictitious symptoms in patient records to support the diagnosis.

Mazzucco and Hayslette are both scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

Sawhny has already been sentenced to serve three years’ probation and must pay $40,126.22 in restitution.