The founder of an Arizona-based pharmaceutical company was arrested Thursday on charges that he ran a nationwide conspiracy to bribe doctors into prescribing a fentanyl spray, authorities said, likening the executive and his accomplices to street-level drug dealers.

John N. Kapoor, 74, of Phoenix, founder and majority owner of Insys Therapeutics Inc., faces charges in federal court in Boston of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Law, according to Acting US Attorney William D. Weinreb’s office.

He will appear Thursday in a Phoenix courtroom, prosecutors said in a prepared statement, before facing a judge in Boston at a later date.

Authorities allege that Kapoor and several previously indicted codefendants “conspired to bribe practitioners in various states, many of whom operated pain clinics,’’ to prescribe Subsys, a powerful narcotic meant for cancer patients suffering intense pain, the statement said.

However, most of the patients weren’t diagnosed with cancer, according to Weinreb’s office. Kapoor’s arrest came hours before the White House’s expected announcement that the opioid addiction crisis was being declared a national public health emergency.

“In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, Mr. Kapoor and his company stand accused of bribing doctors to overprescribe a potent opioid and committing fraud on insurance companies solely for profit,’’ Weinreb said. “Today’s arrest and charges reflect our ongoing efforts to attack the opioid crisis from all angles. We must hold the industry and its leadership accountable — just as we would the cartels or a street-level drug dealer.’’

Harold H. Shaw, head of the Boston FBI office, also blasted Kapoor and his codefendants.

“As alleged, these executives created a corporate culture at Insys that utilized deception and bribery as an acceptable business practice, deceiving patients, and conspiring with doctors and insurers,’’ Shaw said in the statement released by prosecutors. “The allegations of selling a highly addictive opioid cancer pain drug to patients who did not have cancer make them no better than street-level drug dealers.’’

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.