Physician’s assistant sentenced for pushing opioids at Maryland clinic

A former physician’s assistant has been sentenced to three years in prison for pushing opioids at a Maryland clinic, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

William Soyke of Hanover, Pa., was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute highly addictive opioids like oxycodone and fentanyl for no medical purpose in a case tied to a bribery and kickback scheme.

Prosecutors said Soyke, 68, engaged in the illegal activity while working at the Rosen-Hoffberg Rehabilitation and Pain Management clinic near Baltimore, according to the AP.

Prosecutors also said Soyke admitted to engaging in sexual contact with female patients, asking some to bend over while he tested their range of motion and then assaulting them by rubbing his crotch against their bodies, the AP reported.

Soyke’s sentencing comes two months after medical director Howard J. Hoffberg pleaded guilty to similar charges in the bribery scheme. Hoffberg, 65, was being accused of taking money from Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company, between 2012 and 2018 to prescribe a highly addictive opioid to patients.

Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor was found guilty of racketeering charges and was sentenced last year to serve more than five years in prison, the AP noted.

Maryland officials have said that a record 2,500 residents died of opioid overdoses last year.

A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general reached a tentative $26 billion settlement last month with some of the nation’s biggest drugmakers over their role in opioid addiction.