(Adds details from Justice Department)
By Nate Raymond
July 24 (Reuters) - Indivior Plc has agreed to pay
$600 million and have a subsidiary plead guilty to a felony
charge to resolve U.S. allegations that it engaged in an illegal
scheme to boost prescriptions of its opioid addiction treatment
Suboxone.
The U.S. Justice Department announced the agreement on
Friday after the subsidiary, Indivior Solutions Inc, pleaded
guilty in Abingdon, Virginia, to making false statements related
to healthcare matters.
The agreement came after the parent company was indicted in
April 2019 in one of the few corporate prosecutions related to
the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic.
The indictment alleged 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.
In its guilty plea, Indivior Solutions admitted to part of
the scheme, that it sent misleading safety information about the
drug to Massachusetts' Medicaid program, the department said.
Indivior's former chief executive, Shaun Thaxter, pleaded
guilty last month to a related misdemeanor charge.
Indivior as part of Friday's deal agreed to disband its
Suboxone sales force and remove medical providers from its
promotional programs who pose a high risk of inappropriate
prescribing.
The company is also settling related civil lawsuits the
Justice Department joined in 2018. It will pay $10 million to
resolve claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it impeded
competition from generic equivalents of Suboxone.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
and Aurora Ellis)
