A nationwide $102.5 million settlement has been reached with the maker of Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addition, and Alaska is to receive about $1,065,000 from that settlement, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor announced on June 2.
The complaint against Indivior Inc. filed in 2016 by 42 states, alleged that Indivior used illegal means to switch the Suboxone market from tablets to film, while attempting to destroy the market for tablets, in order to preserve its drug monopoly. The trial had been set for this coming September.
The states alleged that Indivior engaged in a practice called “product hopping.” A company engaged in product hopping makes a modest change to its drug in order to gain new patent protection. In this case, Indivior transitioned from Suboxone in the form of a pill to Suboxone in the form of a film that dissolved under the tongue, Taylor said.
The agreement, which will be submitted to the court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for approval, requires Indivior to pay the states a combined $102.5 million. Indivior is also required to comply with negotiated injunctive terms that include disclosures to the states of all citizen petitions to the FDA, introduction of new products, or if there is a change in corporate control, which will help the states ensure that Indivior refrains from engaging in the same kind of conduct alleged in the complaint.
