Hawai‘i reaches settlement with Suboxone maker for alleged illegal monopoly tactics

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez has announced 42 attorneys general have negotiated a nationwide $102.5 million settlement with the maker of Suboxone, Indivior Inc. (Indivior). Hawaiʻi anticipates that it will receive approximately $1 million from the settlement.

In 2016, the states filed a complaint against Indivior alleging that it used illegal means to switch the Suboxone market from tablets to film, while attempting to destroy the market for tablets, in order to preserve its drug monopoly. Trial had been set for September 2023.

The settlement agreement, which has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for approval, requires Indivior to pay the states the total amount of $102.5 million.

Indivior is also required to comply with negotiated injunctive terms that include disclosures to the states of all citizen petitions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, introduction of new products, or if there is a change in corporate control, which will help the States ensure that Indivior refrains from engaging in the same kind of conduct alleged in the complaint.

“We are very pleased with the successful outcome of the law enforcement initiative challenging the scheme to maintain the drug monopoly,” says Hawaiʻi Deputy Attorney General Rod Kimura, who led Hawaii’s efforts in the litigation.

Hawaiʻi is joined by forty other states in the settlement—Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, 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, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin—and the District of Columbia.