Boise, ID – Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced that 42 states, led by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, have negotiated a nationwide $102.5 million settlement with the maker of Suboxone, Indivior Inc. Idaho will receive about $920,000 from the settlement.
“Indivior has used our nation’s drug problem to enrich itself. The company, in an attempt to shield its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone from generic competition, forced consumers to pay inflated prices for the treatment. Not only is this practice illegal, but it is morally reprehensible,” Attorney General Labrador said.
In 2016 the States filed a complaint against Indivior Inc. alleging that they 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. Trial had been set for September 2023.
The agreement, which will be submitted to the court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for approval, requires Indivior to pay the states $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.
Wisconsin’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Gwendolyn Lindsay Cooley, is the lead attorney for the 42 States, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.