Makers of Opioid addiction treatment sued

The makers of suboxone, an opioid addiction treatment, are being accused of blocking generic competitors, artificially spiking its price.

On Thursday Attorneys General in 36 states, including Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that suboxone was switched from a tablet form to a dissolvable film purely to prevent or delay generic alternatives and thereby maintain monopoly profits. No generic alternative to the film version is currently available.

Suboxone is a mix of buprenorphine and naloxone which, in 2002, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat addiction to heroin and prescription painkillers. Annual sales of Suboxone top $1 billion, according to the lawsuit.