Alabama joins suit alleging drug maker profiteered off opioid addicts

The makers of Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, are being sued by 35 states over charges they conspired to keep competition out of the market. (Contributed photo/Wikimedia)

Alabama is joining 34 states in a lawsuit against drug makers over allegations they blocked competition while artificially inflating prices on a medication used to treat opioid addiction.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Pennsylvania, includes the makers of Suboxone, the brand name of a prescription medication used to treat heroin addiction and other opioid dependency by easing addiction cravings. Named in the suit were Suboxone producer Indivior, its parent company Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals and New Jersey-based MonoSol Rx.

The suit claims the two companies illegally conspired to sell a more expensive dissolvable oral strip form of the pill version of Suboxone in order to keep Indivior's rights to the product active. The more-expensive strip Suboxone version was then marketed as a safer alternative with the original pill pulled off the market.

Those changes were done, according to the suit, to prevent generic manufacturers from entering the market while keeping Suboxone's prices high, a process the AGs referred to as illegal "product hopping."

"This conduct forced consumers to pay more for Suboxone and severely limited their options for treating their opioid addictions," Pennsylvania State Attorney General Bruce R. Beemer said in a statement announcing the suit.

Depending on strength, Suboxone retails for between $137 and $477 for a 30-day prescription. Annual sales of Suboxone are more than $1 billion.

Joining Alabama in the suit were Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

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