Indivior PLC receives US$600mln settlement approval from US federal court

() has announced that a US federal court in the Western District of Virginia has approved its agreement with the US authorities over the Suboxone lawsuit.

Indivior said the court has also dismissed all charges that were returned by a grand jury in April 2019.

READ: Indivior ex-CEO sentenced to jail in the US over misleading safety claims

“Indivior is pleased to put this matter behind it and move forward in a manner that provides certainty to its business,” the firm said in a statement.

In July, the pharma company reached a US$600mln settlement with the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various state attorneys general in exchange for a guilty plea to a felony charge.

The group pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement relating to health care matters in 2012, namely promoting Suboxone by claiming the drug was safer than others containing the active ingredient buprenorphine.

The drugmaker will pay the settlement over seven years and has also agreed to a stipulated injunction with the FTC as well as entering a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services through which its subsidiary, Indivior Solutions, will be excluded from government health programs.

The settlement over the anti-addiction treatment, designed to reduce withdrawal symptoms from opioid misuse, comes amid an ongoing legal battle faced by multiple pharmaceutical firms as US authorities grapple with a crisis that has seen millions of Americans become addicted to opioids.

In October, Indivior’s former chief executive Shaun Thaxter was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay penalties of US$0.6mln in fines and forfeiture.

Last year, Group PLC (LON:RB), which spun out Indivior in 2014, agreed to pay around US$1.3bn to the US authorities in an effort to draw a line under the issue.