Indivior sues generic rivals over new Suboxone patent

Indivior has reacted to losing a recent court case by suing companies who are developing generic versions of its opioid addiction treatment .

The Slough-based company's US arm has filed patent lawsuits against generic drugmakers Dr Reddy's, Actavis, Par, Alvogen and Teva for infringing new US patent number 9,931,305, known as the '305 patent, relating to their respective proposed generic versions of its Suboxone film.

The '305 patent, which was issued on 3 April and has been submitted for listing in the FDA's Orange Book, claims film compositions having a substantially uniform distribution of the active drug.

Indivior's lawsuits allege that the generic companies infringe the patent and comes on the back of other patent infringement litigation over its earlier issued patents covering Suboxone with the same companies.

Shaun Thaxter, chief executive of Indivior, said: "The '305 patent, along with the other new Orange Book patents that we secured (the '454 and '221 patents), demonstrates our commitment to innovate and generate new intellectual property for the Suboxone Film. As a follow-on to our '514 patent, we believe this new patent is strong and we are asserting it to protect our intellectual property rights."

Last month, Indivior warned of a potential "rapid and material loss" of sales from its main revenue-generating product after the US District Court of Delaware found Alvogen's generic challenger of Suboxone did not infringe on three of Indivior's US patents.

Indivior's main line of defence in appealing against Alvogen was thought by analysts to be the assertion of the two recently listed Orange Book patents, '454, '221, and the '305.