Former Indivior CEO pleads guilty in opioid marketing case

Katie Adams -

Shaun Thaxter, ex-CEO of Chesterfield, Va.-based Indivior, pleaded guilty June 30 to a misdemeanor count of misrepresenting the drugmaker's opioid misuse treatment.

The charge was a result of the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into Indivior's branding of Suboxone Film, an opioid addiction treatment that contains opioids. The prosecution said Mr. Thaxter funneled misbranded drugs into interstate commerce by failing to prevent employees from providing misleading information to Massachusetts' Medicaid program as it contemplated increasing its coverage for the treatment.

Mr. Thaxter, who will be sentenced Sept. 29, faces up to a year in prison and will pay $600,000 in fines and forfeitures. He announced he was stepping down from his role at Indivior June 29.

The plea comes after Indivior was charged with orchestrating a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme to increase prescriptions of Suboxone Film in April 2019.

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