Indivior plc and Indivior Inc. are handing over more than $3.6 million to Louisiana after being caught red-handed in a years-long scheme to deceive doctors, regulators, and patients about the safety and necessity of Suboxone, a powerful opioid medication. The company exploited the state’s desperate fight against addiction, pushing a drug marketed as a recovery tool while fueling the very crisis it claimed to solve.
Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the $3,637,938.23 settlement this week, hammering Indivior for aggressive and false marketing tactics between 2010 and 2015. During that time, the company pushed Suboxone Sublingual Film as safer and less prone to abuse than competing buprenorphine products—claims Landry called outright lies. In reality, the film was just as addictive and easily diverted, often ending up on the black market instead of in the hands of patients needing treatment.
Worse still, Indivior filed a fraudulent petition with the FDA in 2012, falsely claiming Suboxone Tablets were pulled from the market due to safety concerns. The move wasn’t about patient safety—it was about eliminating competition. By blocking generic versions, Indivior kept prices artificially high, gouging Louisiana’s Medicaid program and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for their greed.
The company also promoted prescriptions without legitimate medical oversight—doctors wrote scripts without counseling, psychosocial support, or proper screening. These were not recovery plans. They were cash grabs disguised as treatment, with prescriptions often diverted, abused, or sold illegally. Louisiana’s opioid crisis was deepened by corporate fraud, not medical necessity.
This payout follows a 2019 slam against Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, which coughed up over $8 million for nearly identical misconduct involving the same drug. Indivior was once a subsidiary of Reckitt, meaning the same corporate machine profited twice from deceptive practices. The pattern is undeniable: profit over patients, deception over care.
Now, Louisiana’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will reinvest a portion of the recovery into ongoing investigations, funded 75% by federal grants and 25% by recovered funds. Attorney General Landry vows to keep the pressure on: “My office will hold accountable any company that plays fast and loose with public health for profit.” For addicts, families, and taxpayers, the message is overdue.
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Key Facts
- State: Louisiana
- Agency: Louisiana AG
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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