Attorney General Miyares announces major victory in the fight against makers of Suboxone

On August 23, 2022, Virginia Attorney General Miyares announced that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled Virginia and forty-one other States can proceed with their litigation against the makers of Suboxone for antitrust law violations. Suboxone is a medication that can serve as a supplementary treatment for an individual in recovery from opioid addiction, specifically in alleviating the often grueling withdrawal symptoms.

“The intentional implementation of an illegal ‘product hopping’ scheme to block or delay generic versions of a medication used to help individuals recover from opioid addiction is despicable exploitation of the opioid epidemic. The decisions made by Indivior Inc. caused purchasers to pay artificially high prices for leading opioid addiction treatment, making access to recovery more difficult for Virginians while putting more money into the pockets of the manufacturers amid a national opioid crisis.”

In a sweeping ruling, United States District Judge Mitchell Goldberg denied defendant Indivior Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgment, holding that there were facts and favorable law for the plaintiffs to proceed. Noting that the volume of facts required “enormous judicial resources” to wade through, the Court denied the defendant’s motions for summary judgment in an 86-page opinion.

The States, led by Wisconsin, alleges that Indivior Inc. used illegal means to switch the Suboxone market from tablets to film while attempting to destroy the market for tablets to preserve its drug monopoly. A trial has not yet been scheduled but is expected next year.

A link to the decision can be found here.

Attorney General Miyares is joined in this victory by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.