Indivior Pays to Settle Allegations of Improper Marketing and Sale of
Powerful and Addictive Drug
BATON ROUGE, LA – Attorney General Jeff Landry announced
that Louisiana has reached an agreement with Indivior plc and Indivior Inc.
(collectively “Indivior”) to settle allegations that Indivior falsely and
aggressively marketed and otherwise promoted the drug Suboxone, resulting in
improper expenditures of state Medicaid welfare funds.
“The opioid epidemic remains a crisis in Louisiana, and
companies who have misrepresented their drugs’ effects have exacerbated the
problem,” said Attorney General Landry. “While many know Suboxone for its
approved use by recovering opioid addicts to avoid or reduce withdrawal
symptoms while they undergo treatment – most do not understand that the product
and its active ingredient, buprenorphine, are powerful and addictive opioids.”
“In order for consumers to know the true benefits and
risks of drugs, their manufacturers and distributors must relay correct
information to the public,” continued Attorney General Landry. “My office and I
will continue to hold accountable companies who engage in improper marketing
and sale practices.”
Among other resolutions, the civil settlement resolves
allegations that – from 2010 through 2015 – Indivior, directly or through its
subsidiaries: (a) promoted the sale and use of Suboxone to physicians who were
writing prescriptions that were not for a medically accepted indication in that
they lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were issued without any counseling or
psychosocial support, were for uses that were unsafe, ineffective, and
medically unnecessary and that were often diverted; (b) knowingly promoted the
sale or use of Suboxone Sublingual Film based on false and misleading claims
that Suboxone Sublingual Film was less subject to diversion and abuse than
other buprenorphine products and that Suboxone Sublingual Film was less
susceptible to accidental pediatric exposure than Suboxone Sublingual Tablets;
and (c) submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration on September
25, 2012, fraudulently claiming that Suboxone Tablet had been discontinued “due
to safety concerns” about the tablet formulation of the drug and took other
steps to fraudulently delay the entry of generic competition for various forms
of Suboxone in order to improperly control pricing of Suboxone, including
pricing to Louisiana’s Medicaid program.
As part of this settlement, Louisiana’s Medicaid welfare
program will recover $3,637,938.23. This present settlement follows an earlier
settlement with the Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (“Reckitt”) which resolved
Reckitt’s potential liability related to substantially similar allegations
involving Suboxone. That 2019 settlement resulted in a recovery of over $8
million for Louisiana’s Medicaid welfare program.
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The Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75%
of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a
grant award totaling $7,099,212 for federal fiscal year (FY) 2021. The
remaining 25% – totaling $2,366,401 – is funded by Louisiana through funds
generated by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.