Former Indivior CEO pleads guilty in U.S. in opioid addiction treatment probe

[S.J.B.]

Former Indivior CEO pleads guilty in U.S. in opioid addiction treatment probe
Nate Raymond
Reuters
June 30th, 2020

(Reuters) - Shaun Thaxter, the former chief executive of drugmaker Indivior Plc (INDV.L), pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a criminal charge arising out of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the marketing of its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone.

Thaxter pleaded guilty in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia to a misdemeanor count of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. The plea came a day after Indivior said he was stepping down as CEO.

Prosecutors said Thaxter failed to prevent employees from sharing misleading safety information about the drug with Massachusetts’ Medicaid program as it considered expanding coverage for it.

Wick Sollers, his attorney, said Thaxter was “unaware of the alleged misstatements when they were made.” Thaxter faces up to one year in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 29 and has agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and forfeitures.

Read the full story here.

 

[neversickanymore]

Interesting.. any related information on this as I'm not sure whats going on here?

@S.J.B.

 

[S.J.B.]

Interesting.. any related information on this as I'm not sure whats going on here?

@S.J.B.

In fact I had come across another story on this topic, just hadn't gotten around to posting it yet:

After CEO pleads guilty, Indivior inks $600M deal to escape opioid marketing accusations
Kyle Blankenship
FiercePharma
July 27th, 2020

The federal government's yearslong probe into sales of opioid addiction therapy Suboxone Film has turned out some eye-popping plea deals in recent months. Now, weeks after its former CEO pleaded guilty to federal charges, Suboxone maker Indivior has inked a hefty settlement of its own to stay out of court.

Indivior will shell out $600 million to federal and state authorities over the next seven years after pleading guilty to misleading the Massachusetts Medicaid program about Suboxone's danger to children to secure formulary coverage, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a release Friday.

The drugmaker will pay $289 million to settle federal and state criminal claims, including closing an indictment from a West Virginia federal grand jury in April 2019. In addition, Indivior will dole out $300 million to close civil claims it violated the False Claims Act in its Suboxone marketing. The company will pay out the settlement in annual installments beginning the week the plea deal is finalized, Indivior said.

As part of its deal, Indivior Solutions, the company's opioid subsidiary, will be barred from participating in government healthcare programs. Indivior said that ban would only apply to its subsidiary and would have no "material effect" on the drugmaker's business with U.S. government payers.

In a release (PDF), Indivior CEO Mark Crossley said the drugmaker was "pleased" with the settlement and was looking to move past prior allegations.

Read the full story here.

 

[Las Veghost grower]

So they lie and ruin a lot of people’s lives, and the government gets the money...I don’t get it, that’s like me going to a restaurant and seeing someone slip on something and get hurt, then me suing the restaurant...shouldn’t the people effected get the $ ?

 

[neversickanymore]

So they lie and ruin a lot of people’s lives, and the government gets the money...I don’t get it, that’s like me going to a restaurant and seeing someone slip on something and get hurt, then me suing the restaurant...shouldn’t the people effected get the $ ?

Don't you love that, its like the government is getting their cut. Oh well the federal government prints their fully unbacked paper money so they don't need to confiscate it. Look at the sin tax on cigarettes, the victims of that rarely get the money. They get screwed twice as they pay the tax and also never benefit from it to compensate their specific roll.

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igentax.com

So most of this is drop in the bucket nonsense.. with 1.4 billion profits the numbers of fines are nothing.

What does this mean?

"As part of its deal, Indivior Solutions, the company's opioid subsidiary, will be barred from participating in government healthcare programs"

Does this mean that the government health care will no longer provide for the opioid addiction suboxone treatment?