Federal Grand Jury indicts Indivior relating to Suboxone marketing and Indivior provides its response

A US Federal Grand Jury indicted Indivior for the marketing practices surrounding Suboxone Film, an opioid addiction treatment that the company claimed was safer and harder to abuse. The government wants a $3 billion settlement and forfeiture of all assets to repay health insurance programs for misuse of the product.

Indivior PLC has issued the following statement.: In response to an indictment returned by a Federal Grand Jury in the Western District of Virginia: We are extremely disappointed in this action by the Justice Department, which is wholly unsupported by either the facts or the law. Key allegations made by the Justice Department are contradicted by the government’s own scientific agencies, they are almost exclusively based on years-old events from before Indivior became an independent company in 2014, and they are wrong. The department has apparently decided it would rather pursue self-serving headlines on a matter of national significance than achieve an appropriate resolution, but we will contest this case vigorously and we look forward to the full facts coming out in court. Indivior’s top priority has always been the treatment of patients struggling with opioid addiction. The medications Indivior provides play an essential role in treating opioid use disorder and addressing the national opioid crisis. Indivior does not make pain pills in the U.S and is not a contributor to the opioid crisis.

As acknowledged by government experts at the FDA and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we make a demonstrably effective treatment for opioid addiction. Indivior discovered buprenorphine, helped develop it as a leading evidence-based treatment for opioid dependence, and currently conducts approximately 75% of all private research into opioid addiction. No other company has done more to fight the opioid crisis, and we continue to be fully dedicated to helping patients, doctors, and communities dealing with opioid addiction. Indivior has never deliberately diverted its product. The government claims that the company aided the careless and clinically unwarranted prescribing by doctors of Suboxone products to too many people or in too high doses. To the contrary, we have engaged in an extensive education campaign to teach doctors about recommended Suboxone dosing limits and patient caps and have developed a process to identify concerning prescribers, going beyond what the law requires.