Indivior and Reckitt sued for blocking generics of opioid drug Suboxone

23 September 2016

Indivior (LSE: INDV) and Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RB) face legal action in the USA for allegedly abusing its monopoly to keep generic versions of the opioid addiction drug Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) off the market.

UK-based Indivior, which was spun out from Reckitt Benckiser in 2014, is being sued by the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, 34 other states and the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit alleges that Reckitt and Indivior tried to coerce patients to switch from a tablet to a dissolvable oral strip version of Suboxone, and engaged in other anticompetitive business practices to maintain its monopoly over the drug, which is used to treat patients addicted to heroin and other drugs, including painkillers.

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