(Adds further details on settlement, background on case)
By Nate Raymond
July 24 (Reuters) - Indivior Plc on Friday said it
had agreed to pay $600 million and have a subsidiary plead
guilty to a criminal charge to resolve U.S. allegations that it
engaged in an illegal scheme to boost prescriptions of its
opioid addiction treatment Suboxone.
The Slough, England-based company said it had reached the
agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade
Commission and U.S. state attorneys general and will make the
payments over a period of seven years.
As part of the deal, Indivior Solutions Inc, the subsidiary,
pleaded guilty earlier in the day in federal court in Abingdon,
Virginia, to one count of making a false statement relating to
healthcare matters in 2012, a company spokesman said.
The Justice Department agreed to dismiss all charges against
the parent company contained in an indictment unveiled in April
2019, the company said. It was one of the few corporate
prosecutions related to the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic.
That indictment alleged that Indivior deceived doctors and
healthcare benefit programs into believing the film version of
Suboxone, which has an opioid component, was safer and less
susceptible to abuse than similar drugs.
The indictment said Indivior also used an internet and
telephone program touted as a resource for opioid addicts to
connect them to doctors it knew were prescribing Suboxone and
other opioids at high rates and in suspect circumstances.
Prosecutors said the scheme began before British consumer
goods company Reckitt Benckiser spun off Indivior.
Reckitt Benckiser last year agreed to pay $1.4 billion to
resolved related claims.
Indivior said it additionally is resolving a civil lawsuit
the Justice Department joined in 2018 as well as a separate
investigation by the FTC.
Indivior's former chief executive, Shaun Thaxter, pleaded
guilty last month to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the
investigation.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Jonathan
Oatis)
