Drugs

Invidior Indicted for Illegal Suboxone Marketing

A Virginia federal grand jury has indicted Invidior, Inc. (formerly Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals) for engaging in an illegal scheme to increase prescriptions of Suboxone Film, an opioid drug used to treat opioid addiction. A Justice Department news release says Invidior obtained billions of dollars in revenue from Suboxone Film prescriptions by deceiving healthcare providers and healthcare benefit programs into believing that the drug was safer, less divertible, and less abusable than other opioid addiction treatment drugs.

The company also allegedly sought to boost profits by using a “Here to Help” program to connect opioid-addicted patients to doctors the company knew were prescribing opioids at high rates and in a clinically unwarranted manner.

The release says the company made its false and misleading claims in marketing materials and through representations to doctors, pharmacists, and healthcare benefit programs throughout the country. The indictment also alleges that Invidior announced a “discontinuance” of its Suboxone tablet form based on supposed “concerns regarding pediatric exposure” to tablets, when company executives knew the primary reason for the discontinuance was to delay FDA approval of generic tablet forms of the drug.

The indictment says the company’s scheme was highly successful, converting thousands of opioid-addicted patients to Suboxone Film and causing state Medicaid programs to expand and maintain coverage of Suboxone Film at substantial cost to the government.

The indictment charges the company with one count of healthcare fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and 22 counts of wire fraud. The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations helped investigate the case.

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Gupta Raises Concerns About Overton’s Independence, Ideology

Overton Confirmation Remains Uncertain After Senate Hearing

FDA Classifies Boston Scientific Imager II Catheter Recall as Class I

FDA Approves Gazyva for Childhood-Onset Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome