Indivior has reached a $385 million agreement to resolve outstanding legal claims over its blockbuster opioid addiction treatment.
The FTSE 250 company has been battling lawsuits over allegations from a group of claimants that it violated antitrust and consumer protection laws in marketing Suboxone.
Indivior, the former pharmaceuticals business of Reckitt Benckiser, said that it had reached a settlement with direct purchasers, or drug wholesalers, in the litigation in the United States before a trial that had been scheduled to begin on October 30.
The agreement comes after a $30 million resolution with insurers in America in August and a $103 million deal in June to resolve claims brought by more than 40 states.
Indivior said the latest agreement marked the conclusion of the multidistrict litigation, once the settlements are approved by a court in Pennsylvania. As part of the agreement, Indivior will pay $385 million from its cash position and will take a charge of $228 million in the third quarter, which will be excluded from adjusted earnings. “This charge represents the additional amount above the current remaining provision of $157 million for the antitrust multi-district litigation, which reflects the previously announced settlement agreements with the states and end-payers [insurers],” it said.
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Indivior said it expected the agreement to remove the “material uncertainty related to Indivior’s going concern basis of accounting”, which it had issued alongside its half-year results in July.
The news prompted a jump in Indivior’s shares of 5.2 per cent, or 78p, to £15.87.
Mark Crossley, 54, the company’s chief executive, said: “The resolution of this litigation, which was filed over a decade ago, provides greater certainty for all Indivior stakeholders and allows us to continue focusing on our important work for patients suffering from opioid use disorder and mental health illnesses.”
Indivior was spun off in 2014 from Reckitt, the consumer goods group behind Nurofen and Dettol. It has built a dominant position in America, where its treatments are prescribed to recovering addicts to reduce withdrawal symptoms. However, its reputation, balance sheet and share price have been hampered by the lawsuits relating to Suboxone.
Three years ago Indivior agreed to pay $600 million to US authorities and pleaded guilty to a criminal charge to resolve an investigation into the marketing of its opioid addiction treatment. Shaun Thaxter, 56, the former chief executive of Indivior, was jailed for six months in the US after pleading guilty in 2020 to causing misbranded information about the drug’s safety.
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Analysts at Jefferies, the broker, said: “We are encouraged that Indivior can finally put its legacy multi-district antitrust matter behind it … The [multi-district litigation] has been a barrier to some longer-term investors entering the stock.”
