Indivior has been charged with engaging in a fraudulent marketing scheme to boost prescriptions of an opioid drug known as Suboxone Film that is used to treat opioid addiction, the US Department of Justice said Tuesday.
A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Indivior on a range of charges related to the alleged scheme, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and healthcare fraud.
According to the indictment, Indivior obtained billions of dollars in revenue from Suboxone Film prescriptions by marketing the drug as a safer and less abusable option than other drugs used to treat opioid addiction, thus deceiving healthcare providers and benefit programs.
The company was also accused of seeking to increase profits through a “Here to Help” programme by connecting addicted patients to doctors it knew were “were prescribing opioids at high rates and in a clinically unwarranted manner”.
Indivior said it would contest the case “vigorously”.
“We are extremely disappointed in this action by the Justice Department, which is wholly unsupported by either the facts or the law. Key allegations made by the Justice Department are contradicted by the government’s own scientific agencies, they are almost exclusively based on years-old events from before Indivior became an independent company in 2014, and they are wrong,” Indivior said in a statement.
Shares of Indivior, which was spun off from Reckitt Benckiser in 2014, are down 5.4 per cent this year. The shares have fallen 73 per cent in the past 12 months.
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