Wexler Wallace Files Case Against the Makers of Suboxone
On March 26, 2013, Wexler Wallace LLP and its co-counsel filed an antitrust suit on behalf of a class of consumers and third-party payors against drug maker Reckitt Benckiser for allegedly engaging in an anticompetitive scheme to exclude competition for its opiate addiction drug, Suboxone. The complaint alleges, inter alia, that Reckitt unlawfully maintained and extended its monopoly of Suboxone by developing a different formulation of the drug– an oral film –attempting to subvert generic competition in the market that had previously existed for the medication in its original tablet form.
The complaint also alleges that to further delay generic entry and buy time to convert consumers from the tablet to the film, Reckitt filed sham citizen petitions with the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and sabotaged the FDA’s Abbreviated New Drug Application process for approving generic alternatives. According to the complaint, Reckitt’s conduct enabled it to reap over a billion dollars in revenue while preventing consumers from obtaining much cheaper generic versions of Suboxone that would have been available almost four years ago.
For more about the case, please click here.