Drugmaker Indivior must face a lawsuit by 42 state attorneys general accusing it of using illegal tactics to shield its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone from generic competition, a federal judge has ruled.
US District Judge Mitchell Goldberg in Philadelphia found Monday that a reasonable jury could find that Indivior’s switch from a pill to an oral film form of the drug in 2009 was intended to extend its monopoly just as generic manufacturers were poised to begin selling their own pills, a strategy known as product hopping. He denied the Virginia-based company’s motion for a judgment in its favor.
States have said that the company’s conduct forced consumers to pay inflated prices for the treatment amid an epidemic of opioid addiction.
“The cost of critical medication must not be inflated through anticompetitive tactics,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is leading the multistate coalition, said in a statement.
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