Indivior settles $30 million class action lawsuit alleging suppression of generic competition for Suboxone
- Indivior, a pharmaceutical company, has reached a $30 million settlement to settle a class action lawsuit filed by health plans in a US court.
- The lawsuit alleges that the company unlawfully impeded generic competition for its opioid addiction drug Suboxone.
- Indivior still faces claims from drug wholesalers who bought Suboxone directly from the Virginia-based company. The trial is scheduled for October.
Indivior has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit in a US court alleging health insurance companies illegally suppress generic competition for its opioid addiction drug Suboxone.
The settlement, disclosed Saturday in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for the health plans in federal court in Philadelphia, is yet to be approved by a judge. Indivior still faces lawsuits from drug wholesalers who bought Suboxone directly from the Virginia-based company. A court hearing is scheduled for October.
“We remain focused on helping people who suffer from substance use disorders and mental illness,” Indivior CEO Mark Crossley said in a statement Monday. “Resolving these legacy legal matters with the right value helps us advance our mission for patients and creates more certainty for our stakeholders.”
Health insurance attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They said in their filing that the deal was “fair, reasonable, reasonable and in the best interests” of the class.
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Pharmacist Jim Pearce fills out a Suboxone prescription at Boston Healthcare for the homeless program in Boston, Massachusetts on January 14, 2013. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo)
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Suboxone was approved for sale in the United States in 2002. Indivior had exclusive rights to sell the treatment in tablet form until 2009.
The health insurers and drug wholesalers claimed in their lawsuits that Indivior switched from a tablet version to an oral film version of Suboxone to expand its monopoly just as generic drug makers were ready to sell their own cheaper tablets. Generic tablets received federal approval in 2013.
Indivior in June agreed to pay $102.5 million to settle related claims from 41 US states and Washington, DC. The company agreed in 2020 to pay $600 million to address US government allegations that it fraudulently promoted Suboxone, including by marketing the film version as safer and more prone to abuse than similar drugs.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 80,000 people in the United States died from opioid overdoses in 2021.
