| Hans-Günter Meyer-Thompson | Legal
USA. Illinois joins 35 states in lawsuit against drug treating opioid addiction
Illinois joined 34 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against drugmaker Indivior over its prescription drug that treats patients addicted to heroin and other opioid drugs.
Indivior has been able to maintain its monopoly on the market by changing the medication from a tablet form to a dissolving film before the patent expired, blocking a generic alternative from entering the marketplace, the lawsuit alleges. Suboxone has made over a billion dollars in annual sales since 2009, when the original patent was due to expire. (dailynorthwestern.com, 03.10.2016; thedailybeast.com, 05.10.2016)