Indivior CEO pleads guilty to charge over opioid drug Suboxone

Shaun Thaxter, the chief executive of Indivior (LSE: INDV), has pleaded guilty to causing the introduction into interstate commerce of the opioid drug Suboxone Film (buprenorphine) which was misbranded in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Mr Thaxter will be stepping down as chief executive of the firm, which prior to 2009 was known as Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals and was a subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser Group, a British conglomerate that paid $1.4 billion in 2019 to resolve its liability to the USA and various states related to the marketing of Suboxone.

Indivior issued a statement stressing that Mr Thaxter’ guilty plea was in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the Group.