Makers of the drug Suboxone — which is used to help wean addicts from heroine and other opioids — are being sued by the attorneys general of 36 states, including Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin. ADVERTISING Makers of the drug
Makers of the drug Suboxone — which is used to help wean addicts from heroine and other opioids — are being sued by the attorneys general of 36 states, including Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin.
Suboxone is a brand-name drug that comes in a film that dissolves in the mouth. The lawsuit alleges Indivior and MonoSol RX conspired to “switch Suboxone from a tablet version to a film” with the intent of making a slight change in the drug to keep it on a patent so no other drugmaker can produce a generic version.
The companies are accused of violating state and federal antitrust laws “in order to prevent or delay generic alternatives and maintain monopoly profits.”
After the drug companies developed the film version, the lawsuit alleges, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals (formerly known as MonoSol RX) “allegedly converted the market away from the tablet to the film through marketing, price adjustments and other methods.”
Then, Reckitt removed the tablet from the market while keeping it on the market overseas.
That, the lawsuit alleges, is an illegal process called “producing hopping” to make “modest changes to its product to extend patent protections so other companies can’t enter the market and offer cheaper generic alternatives.”
